Mukkamala

Mukkamala Krishna Murthy is a lawyer turned actor who appeared predominantly in Telegu cinemas in the 1950's and 1960's. He was a stage actor in his student life and joined the film industry in the late 1940s when Telugu films were produced in Madras. He is regarded as the most successful character actor in Telugu cinema active in the screen for over three-and-a-half decades. He began his career as the protagonist Gorakhnath in Maya Machindra Maya Machindra was a TV series directed by Indian >> Read More... (1945) and won kudos for his performance.

But the film was a box-office disaster. Later when he played as the antagonist father of Laila in Bharani’s ‘ Laila Majnu Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ (1949) and he established himself as an actor in Telugu cinema. Since then he also essayed many villain roles in many movies. But when film-maker H. M. Reddy, the father of Telugu talkie, had cast him as a lawyer in the film ‘Nirdoshi’, he returned to do some lead role in movies.

He also played mythological characters in some movies like ‘Sri Krishnarjuna Yuddham’,’ Seeta Kalyanam’, ‘Kurukshetram’ etc. Mukkamala acted with all leading stars of Telugu cinema and acted in top banners that saw the houseful boards outside cinema halls. He has been highly praised for his role ‘Guruvunu Minchina Sishyudu,’ which carried the film to the winning post.

Since in those days, every film that Mukkamala had acted the story was good and the character well-pitched, a good actor like could carry any role without any image problem. He also has acted in some Hindi movies such as ‘Apna Desh’ and 'Pyaar Ka Sindoor’. Mukkamala also tried his hand in direction and had directed three movies. The actor was born in Guntur district in 1920. He was an advocate in Guntur and later become famous as a stage and earned enough fame and prestige in the film world. He died in 1987.