Sattriraju Lakshmi Narayana, also known as Bapu was born on 14th of December in 1933 in Narsapur, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. He graduated as a lawyer from University of Madras in 1955. He joined as political cartoonist for the newspaper Andhra Patrika in 1955. He later went on to become designer, movie director and a popular painter.

Painting Style

Bapu introduced a new style of paiting using simple bright colours which are easy on the eye. His unique style of economy of strokes, freehand drawing and non-usage of background clutter made the paintings simple, beautiful and popular. He specializes in Hindu mythological characters and has painted the Hindu epic Ramayana as a pictorial story. In his paintings, characters like Shiva, Bhima, Duryodhana look distinctly male with wide chests, bigger jaws and large biceps, while Krishna and Rama have a tinge of feminish sensitivity. All his female characters (including Hindu Godesses) have deer like eyes, a waist-hip ratio of 0.7, voluptuous breasts, long hair and a sharp nose. Infact, the phrase Bapu Bomma (Bapu's painting) has become synonymous with a beautiful girl in Telugu. Another character called Rendu Jedala Seetha (Seetha, a girl with two plaits) later became a synonym with any girl wearing two plaits.

Bapu has also introduced a new cursive writing in Telugu which is probably the only alternative to the more traitional print font in Telugu.

Collaborations with other artists

He worked with Satyam Sankaramanchi and drew hundered and one pictures for each of the stories in Amaravati Kathalu. He collaborated with comic writer Mullapudi Venkata Ramana and gave life to Mullapudi's characters Budugu and his family in the form of pictures.

Movies

Bapu has directed movies like Sampoorna Ramayanam (The complete Ramayana), Pelli Pustakam (The book of marriage), Saakshi (witness), Mr.Pellam (Mr.Wife), Tyagayya (a biopic on the life of Saint Tyagaraja) and Radha Gopalam (Radha and Gopalam).

Other works

Bapu is said to have designed some saris too. The collection of saris used in the 1991 movie Pelli Pustakam were designed by Bapu.

Awards and Acclaim

Bapu was awarded the Raghupathy Venkaiah award by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh for his outstanding contribution to Telugu cinema in 1986. He shared the award along with his soul-mate Mullapudi Venkata Ramana.

Another popular work in Telugu Koonalamma Padalu (Poems from Everyday people) has the following in praise of Bapu:

Konte Bommala Bapu
Konni Tharamula Sepu
Gunde OOyala-loopu
O Koonalammaa

(Bapu's paitings sway the hearts for generations)

External Links

• For a complete filmography