Vamsy

Vamsy was born on 20 November 1956 near Hampi and brought up in the village of Pasalapudi, near Ramachandrapuram of East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.

Vamsy worked as an assistant director to K Viswanath on Sankarabharanam, Bharati Rajaa on Seethakoka Chiluka before making his first film Manchupallaki with Chiranjeevi, Suhasini,Tripuraneni Sai Chand and Rajendra Prasad in 1982. This movie was a remake of the Tamil film Palaivana Solai directed by Robert-Rajasekaran.[1] In 1984, Vamsy made the critically acclaimed Sitaara, with which he introduced Bhanupriya to the Telugu film industry. The movie was adapted from his own novel Mahal lo Kokila (The Nightingale in the Palace). The movie won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu. In 1985, he made 'Preminchu Pelladu', the first movie with Rajendra Prasad as the sole lead.[2]

For a significant period of his career, Vamsy collaborated with the music director Ilayaraja. Some of their best work has been in co-operation with each other. The two were so attuned to each other's way of thinking that for a song in his movie Ladies Tailor, Vamsy shot the song picturization ("Ekkada Ekkada") before the song was recorded by music director.[3] This is against the norm as usually the songs are recorded first and the filming made later in most movies.

He has published a short stories compilation called Maa Pasalapudi Kathalu. Besides that compilation, Vamsy has written a wide variety of short stories since 1974 when he was 16 years old. His major works include Mahallo kokila, Manchupallaki, Aa Naati Vaana Chinukulu, Venditera Kathalu (original scripts of Sankarabharanam and Anveshana), Vennela Bomma, Gokulam lo Radha, Ravvala konda, Sree seetarama lanchi service Rajahmundry, Manyam rani, Rangularatnam. He has penned around 150 short stories published in swathi weekly under title "Maa Diguwa Godavari Kathalu" For his contributions to the art of story telling with a native approach through his books he was bestowed with "Sripada Puraskhaaram" at Rajamundry on 17 April 2011.

He also directed a TV serial named Lady detective for ETV-Telugu which was aired on every Thursday in 1995–96.

Vamsy is one of the very few filmmakers in Telugu who tries to depict the nativity of the concerned story. Although he is well known for portraying the scenic beauty of Godavari and surrounding regions, the element of characterization is the highlight in his films. Ilaiyaraja has special affection for Vamsi to the extent he once gave 100 tunes to pick from for a particular movie. He used to take Vamsi to several special spots in Tamil Nadu including Spiritual places, Temples, Forests, mountains like kollimalai and Arunachalam.

He directed Anveshana in 1985, a murder mystery thriller set in Talakona forest background (Near Tirupathi). Vamsi mentioned he got inspiration from 1971 European movie Cat o' Nine Tails. Ilaiyaraaja scored brilliant background music to evoke the spooky forest atmosphere and horror surrounding the murders. The film still stands as an unmatched classic thriller in Telugu industry with Hitchcockish suspense ending. Vamsi mentioned that director Ram Gopal varma became so obsessed with this movie that RGV watched the movie 22 times during his college days.

• Vamsy Fansite
• Series on Vamsy
• Vamsy at IMDb
• MBS Prasad's articles on Pasalapudy kathalu