When Ramana (the painter) began cleansing the exterior of the Hyderabad house on the last Tuesday i.e., on 14th February 2022, he unearthed over 1000 photographs pertaining to the shooting of the TV serial MAHATMA. These photographs belong to the process of shooting…bitter sweet memories ignited in my heart…depths of my soul.
Let me take the names of few…whose names I remember… (and allow me to record each of the member of the Mahatma are EXCELLENT people) … M/S Celebrated director KSR DAS, JACOB, RAMANAND, LACMIKANT – PYARELAL, Lyricist MAYA GOVING, Advocate SRIPAL REDDY, Singer NITIN MUKESH, RAGESHWARI, RAVI (painter & a trusted man from Guntur) Production Manager RAJENDRA PRASAD, Asst Director Veera Bhadra (unable to remember full name), Cameraman RAM PRASAD, Make up in charge SHOBHA, Retired politician & Minister of UNITED AP Late Mr. A MADAN MOHAN and my brother KRISHNA … How can I throw away this treasure? I am thankful to Ramana for unearthing. These photographs belong to the years 1997- 1998. Quarter century later I am looking at them! These photographs were not stored properly, majority were sticking to each other inseparably. If I try to separate them, they were getting torn!
I tried to go through each of the photo. Many people in the salvaged photographs remained as faces! They had worked with me; spent a part of their precious lives – with me. I had known each of them… I apologize for not remembering them & their names. Many beautiful women, girls & men’s photographs could be salvaged. Like me, they too must have aged… beyond recognition. If my remaining life permitting and they being alive & in good health, it is my sincere desire to meet each of them.
After I am gone or my memory with aging – these beautiful photographs make no sense to the future generations. They become the ‘THEN’ photographs! Numerous such photographs we can see on the net, where people do not look at them the second time! The effort they had made which occasioned that photograph is summarily ignored by us the netizens. Many photographs either by the fact their being damaged or to keep the artists privacy (it makes sense to me and to brother Krishna… had he been alive) I have decided to destroy them. Therefore, is order to keep the dignity, privacy and respect; and while taking the final farewell from these great people, while bowing to them with respect, I am consigning these 1000 odd photo graphs to flames today i.e., on 19th February 2023 with watchman Deepak as witness.
Few good photographs (around 30 in number), due to greed, I have decided to treasure for my life. However, the negatives of all photos are being preserved…for, if I know rightly, they will last for another century!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
