Balantrapu Rajanikanta Rao

Balantrapu Rajanikanta Rao was among the most talented writers, composers and poets. He was born on 29th January 1920. His works were in Telugu. He was born in Nidadavole in Andhra Pradesh during the British Raj. He did his schooling in Pithapuram, Andhra Pradesh. He completed his graduation from PR College, Kakinada. He later did his BA Honours from Andhra University. He began his music career in 1941 as a programme executive in AIR Madras. He was the writer and composer of the first ever Telugu song- Mroyimpu Jayabheri, broadcasted in Independent India on a midnight of 15th Aug 1947. It was sung by T. Suryakumari. He was an essential part of AIR throughout his life.

Later on, he became the station director of AIR Ahmedabad and Vijayawada. He retired as a station director of AIR Bangalore. He was interested in writing and composing different music from the very young age of 21. He composed many tunes from popular movies that people heard under the name of other artists such as- Nalini and Taranath. Some of those tunes are- Swargaseema, Gruhapravesam, etc. He had also composed music for a national orchestra named Vadyabrinda. His most loved work till now is- Andhra Vaggeyakara Charitam. It documented the life of famous music composers and lyricists & the progression of Andhra music.

He won a Sahitya Akademi Award for the same in the year 1961. Apart from his music career, he was a visiting professor at Telugu University & also worked as a special officer at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for four years. He also presented research papers in different music academies on various musical subjects such as Kshetrayya's lyrics, Geeta Govinda, Ragas of Gandhara Grama, ancient scales of Indian music, etc. to educate young musicians. On 22nd April 2018, he passed away at the age of 99.