CHENNAI: Prominent Telugu lyricist Vennelakanti (63) died of a massive heart attack on Tuesday evening in Chennai.
Born on November 30, 1957 in Nellore. Vennelakanti's full name was Vennelakanti Rajeshwara Prasad. He is survived by two sons. Shashank Vennelakanti and Rakendu Mouli both associated with the Telugu film industry as dialogue and script writers.His youngest son, Rakendu Mouli, also started his career as a lyricist and singer for several dubbing films including Naveen Chandra's Andala Rakshasi.
Vennelakanti also had good reputation as a dubbing scriptwriter and provided lyrics for Tamil films.
At a very young age of eleven Vennelakanti used to write poetry and loved listening to traditional Harikathas and spiritual discourses in his hometown.
A banker by profession ,Vennelakanti's stint as a lyricist began in the year 1986 with the film Srirama Chandradu, directed by Bhaskar Rao. Vennelakanti's father 'Pratibha' Koteshwara Rao was also associated with movie field. It is said that he was encouraged by late singer SP Balasubramnayam and joined the film industry as a song writer first.
Vennelakanti won the Nandi Award for best lyricist for the movie Raghavayyagari Abbai in the year 2000,
He also acted in plays written by Telugu film director Jandhyala like Ek Din Ka Sultan, Ee Charithara Ee Siratho, Yevvaniche Janinchu and Darpanam.
Apart from writing for Tamil movies, Vennelakanti was also known to have first written dubbing scripts in Telugu for Hollywood films, which started with him.
He has written over 1500 straight songs in Telugu in 34 years and more than 1500 songs in dubbing films. “Raasaleela Vela” (Aditya369), “Mavayya Anna Pilupu” (Muddula Mavayya), and “Maatarani Mounamidi” (Maharshi) were some of his early hits. He gained popularity as a writer with dubbed movies like ‘Panchatantram’ and ‘Dasavatharam’.
Telugu movies PRO BR raju was the first to tweet the news about Vennelakanti's death.
Well-known Lyricist #Vennelakanti passes away due to cardiac arrest.
— BARaju (@baraju_SuperHit) January 5, 2021
May His Soul Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/Vdkj7hZTHO
Condolences have poured infrom the Tollywood fraternity after the news of his death spread.
😨😨 What??? Was watching Vennelakanti’s special on Swarabhisekam yesterday... Such a talented lyricist who dubbed most of Tamil songs into Telugu without losing their flavors. https://t.co/N3u4ib9cPT
— Bharath (@bharathbkd) January 5, 2021
Director Surender Reddy:
Extremely saddened by the demise of writer #Vennelakanti Garu. My sincere condolences to the family.
— SurenderReddy (@DirSurender) January 5, 2021
Popular Lyricist Bhaskarabhatla tweeted a famous line from his song in tribute to the writer:
చిరునవ్వుల వరమిస్తావా చితి నుండీ లేచొస్తా
— bhaskarabhatla (@bhaskarabhatla) January 5, 2021
మరుజన్మకి కరుణిస్తావా ఈ క్షణమే మరణిస్తా
-వెన్నెలకంటి ❤️
వెన్నెలకంటి గారికి అశృనివాళి 💐💐💐