Hyderabad: The body of veteran Telugu poet and film lyricist C. Narayana Reddy will be cremated with full state honours in Hyderabad on Wednesday, officials have said.
Popularly known as Cinare, Narayana Reddy died of a heart attack at a city hospital on Monday, plunging the world of literature and film into grief. He was 85.
The chief Minister of Telangana, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu were among the hundreds of prominent personalities who visited his residence to pay tributes to the doyen of Telugu literature.
Paying tribute to Cinare, KCR announced that his last rites would be performed at Jubilee Hills crematorium with full state honours.
The last rites will be performed after his grandchildren arrive from the USA. The state government has announced running special bus service for the people coming from the districts for the funeral.
“The state government will build an auditorium and a memorial in his honour. We will also install his statues on the Tankbund in Hyderabad and at his birth place in Hanumajipet in Sricilla district,” he told the media.
Chandrababu Naidu who flew in from Vijayawada to pay his respects termed Cinare’s death as an irreplaceable loss to Telugu language and literature.
He recalled his long association with the legendary film actor and founder of Telugu Desam Party N.T. Rama Rao.
Cinare was an embodiment of the composite culture of Hyderabad as he had the rare combination of mastery over Urdu and Telugu.
He had his entire education from primary school to graduation in Osmania University in Urdu language but did his post graduation and PhD in Telugu literature placing him in a unique position of bringing the influence of poetry and literature of one language into another.
Starting as a Telugu lecturer in Secunderabad college of arts he went on to become a professor in Osmania University and taught at the famous Nizam college.
Such was his command over Telugu language and literature that he left a vast treasure of more 3500 Telugu film songs and a collection of 80 books of poetry, ballads, plays, essays and travelogues.
His song “Telugu Jaati Manadi” became an anthem of sorts for Telugu people calling for the unity of Telugus.
Such was love for the land and culture that he named all his four daughters after four Indian rivers Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati and Krishnaveni who ironically settled in the USA.
Cinare was the most honoured and recognised poet of Telugu language. He was awarded country’s highest literary award “Gnanapeeth” in 1988 for his opus “Viswambhara”. He also received several other prominent awards including Padmashri, Padmabhushan, and Sahitya Academy award. In the recognition of his service and contribution to literature Cinare was nominated to Rajya Sabha in 1997.
He also served as the vice chancellor of Telugu University and BR Ambedkar Open University.
Though he belonged to Telangana, his mastery over Telugu language had surpassed the poets and writers of Andhra. This was recognised by Andhra literatures by installing his statue in the Visakhapatnam beach in his lifetime. Andhra University had also bestowed a honorary doctorate in him in 1978.
His six decade long career in Telugu films had started in 1961 when NTR offered him a beak as a lyricist for his first directorial venture “Gulebakavali Kathal” (Story of Gule Bakawali).
