Vamsy

Vamsy was born in Balabhadrapuram,and brought up in the village of Pasalapudi, near Ramachandrapuram of East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.

Vamsy started writing stories at the age of 15. His first story, "Satya Sundari Navvindi", was read in All India Radio during 1975. He wrote two novels, "Manchu Pallaki" & "Karma Sakshi" which were published in "Andhra Jyothy Weekly" before beginning his film career.

In 1976, he started to explore his career in Madras, beginning his work with V. Madhusudhana Rao as assistant director for many films, later worked as an assistant director to K. Viswanath on Sankarabharanam, Bharathiraja on Seethakoka Chilaka.

He made his first film Manchupallaki with Chiranjeevi, Suhasini, Tripuraneni Sai Chand and Rajendra Prasad in 1982. The movie was a remake of the Tamil film Palaivana Solai directed by Robert–Rajasekar.[1] In 1984, Vamsy made the critically acclaimed Sitaara, with which he introduced Bhanupriya to the Telugu film industry. The movie was adapted from his own novel Mahal lo Kokila (The Nightingale in the Palace). The movie won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.

In 1985, Vamsy made 'Preminchu Pelladu', the first movie with Rajendra Prasad as the sole lead.[2] Vamsy directed a documentary "Bommarshi Bapu" and won a Nandi Award for Best Director from the State Government of Andhra Pradesh in 1996. He also directed a TV serial named Lady Detective for ETV (Telugu) which was aired every Thursday in 1995–96.

For a significant period of his career, Vamsy collaborated with the music director Ilayaraja. The two were so attuned to each other's way of thinking that for a song in his movie Ladies Tailor, Vamsy shot the song footage ("Ekkada Ekkada") before the song had been recorded by the music director.[3] This is against the norm as usually the songs are recorded first and the filming done later.

Vamsy has introduced many actors and technicians to the film industry like Rajendra Prasad, Tanikella Bharani, Bhanupriya, Mallikarjuna Rao, Maharshi Raghava, Kondavalasa, Pradeep Shakthi, Krishna Bhagavaan, Shantipriya, Hamsa Nandini, and cast Jeeva as a comedian. Vamsy has worked closely with Bapu on over 400 projects, and Bapu has designed all of Vamsy's film titles.

He has published a short story compilation called Maa Pasalapudi Kathalu. Besides that compilation, Vamsy has written a wide variety of short stories since 1974 when he was 16 years old. His major works include Mahallo kokila, Manchupallaki, Aa Naati Vaana Chinukulu, Venditera Kathalu (original scripts of Sankarabharanam and Anveshana), Vennela Bomma, Gokulam lo Radha, Ravvala konda, Sree seetarama lanchi service Rajahmundry, Manyam rani, Rangularatnam. He has penned around 360 short stories published in Swathi (magazine) weekly under the title "Maa Diguwa Godavari Kathalu" For his contributions to the art of storytelling with a native approach through his books he was bestowed with "Sripada Puraskhaaram" at Rajamundry on 17 April 2011.

Vamsy is one of the very few filmmakers in Telugu who tries to depict the nativity of the concerned story. Although he is well known for portraying the scenic beauty of the Godavari and surrounding regions, the element of characterization is the highlight in his films. Ilaiyaraja has a special affection for Vamsy to the extent he once gave him 100 tunes to pick from for a particular movie. He used to take Vamsy to several special spots in Tamil Nadu including spiritual places, temples, forests, and mountains like Kollimalai and Arunachalam.

He directed Anveshana, in 1985, a murder mystery thriller set in the Talakona forest, near Tirupati. Vamsy mentioned that he got inspiration from the 1971 European film, The Cat o' Nine Tails, for the story. Ilaiyaraaja scored brilliant background music to evoke the spooky forest atmosphere and horror surrounding the murders. The film still stands as an unmatched classic thriller in Telugu cinema, with a Hitchcockian climax. Vamsi mentioned that Ram Gopal Varma became so obsessed with the film, that he watched it 22 times, during his college days.

• Vamsy Fansite
• Series on Vamsy
• Vamsy at IMDb
• MBS Prasad's articles on Pasalapudy kathalu