Rentala Jayadeva, the Rare Film Journalist Who Won Both State Awards
Dr. Rentala Jayadeva, a writer, researcher, senior journalist, and Nandi Award recipient for best film critic, has received the Telangana State Government’s prestigious ‘Gaddar Film Award’. This honor for 2024 was bestowed upon Jayadeva’s book in the ‘Best Writings on Telugu Cinema’ category, as part of the Gaddar Film Awards initiated by the Telangana government to promote the film industry and recognize excellent Telugu films. Jayadeva’s book, ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel,’ which unearthed many forgotten aspects of our film history, was selected as the ‘Best Film Book’ by the state government jury.
The award ceremony, held grandly in Hyderabad on Saturday, saw Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and State Cinematography Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy present Jayadeva with the Gaddar Award silver memento, a commendation certificate, and a cash prize. On this occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister received a copy of the book ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel’ on stage and congratulated the author.
This is the first time the government has announced film awards since the formation of the separate Telangana state. It’s noteworthy that Rentala Jayadeva was the recipient of this very first award. In the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state, Jayadeva had previously received the ‘Best Film Critic’ honor from the then-state government in 2011, as part of the popular Nandi Awards. With this latest Gaddar Award, Jayadeva has achieved a rare record: he is the first journalist to win both the Nandi and Gaddar awards, making him a government award winner in both Telugu states.
The book ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel,’ which was selected for the Gaddar Award, is the culmination of Jayadeva’s twenty-five years of research into the early history of South Indian language films. This is a rare work that has unearthed many elements of our film history that have yet to be recorded. It’s a comprehensive and analytical work, meticulously written with evidence, detailing many unknown developments in our Indian cinema, especially Telugu cinema, from the days of silent films to the early days of talkies when pictures on screen learned to speak and branched into separate language categories. This cinematic history was crafted using authentic sources, such as nearly century-old newspaper information and photographs, diligently collected with rare insights.
In this work, Rentala Jayadeva unearthed many new facts about the first South Indian language talkie film, ‘Kalidas’ (1931). He revealed that it was not actually one film, but a compilation of three short films, and that the main part, the ‘Kalidas’ story film, was a short film of 4 reels, made entirely in Telugu.
He unequivocally proved this with contemporary evidence. He also pointed out that while Tamils claim it as their first talkie and incorporate it into their history, we, as Telugu speakers, have neglected to include this film with full Telugu dialogues in our cinematic records. He has thus documented the early Telugu film history that we have been overlooking.
In this work, Jayadeva has presented many historical truths related to the earliest talkies in Hindi, as well as in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam cinema. He has included nearly 2,000 extremely rare newspaper advertisements and photographs in this book.
He has been continuously making significant contributions with his writings for over three and a half decades. Previously, Rentala Jayadeva’s research also uncovered the correct release date of ‘Bhakta Prahlada,’ the first full-length, ten-reel Telugu talkie.
He corrected decades of prevalent misinformation regarding Telugu Cinema Day by providing documentary evidence. Recognizing Rentala Jayadeva’s distinguished work, the undivided Andhra Pradesh government previously awarded him the prestigious ‘Nandi’ award as ‘Best Film Critic,’ and now the Telangana government has bestowed the Gaddar Award upon his groundbreaking research work, ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel,’ which has given Telugu cinema history a new turn.
