What made N T Ramarao unique in playing mythology characters was the fact that he almost became one with the character, whether it was Lord Krishna or Rama or the antagonists Ravana and Duryodhana. However, when producer C.Sridhar Rao and his actress wife Lakshmi Rajyam, who were planning to produce Nartanasala based on Virataparva in Mahabharatha, offered him the role of Brihannala, he was at first wary of taking it up. However after dilly dallying for a while, NTR decided to take the call but not before testing himself as Brihannala with costumes and ornaments designed by the film’s art director T.V.S. Sarma and makeup by the noted Bengali makeup wizard, Haripada Chandra better known as Haribabu. He then headed straight to veteran filmmaker K.V. Reddi whom he considered his guru and only after getting his nod did he sign up for the role.
The story
After completing their 12 year exile, the Pandavas reach the palace of Virata King (Mukkamala) to stay there incognito for a year — Dharmaraja (Mikkilineni) as Kankubhattu, the advisor and dice player, Bheema (Dandamudi Rajagopal) as Valala, the chief cook, Arjuna (NTR) as Brihannala the transgender dance teacher to the king’s daughter Uthara (L. Vijayalakshmi), Nakula as horse keeper and Sahadeva as cow herd, Draupadi (Savitri) as Sairandhri, the maid for queen Sudheshna (Sandhya). When Sudheshna’s brother Keechaka (S.V. Rangarao) lustily eyes Sairandhri, Bheema kills him. This makes Kauravas Duryodhana (Dhulipala), Dussasana (Sathyanarayana) along with Karna (Prabhakara Reddy) suspect that Pandavas are in Virata kingdom. To expose them, they wage a war against the Virata king. As the period of their exile comes to an end, Arjuna gets back to his real self and defeats the Kauravas. Uthara and Abhimanyu’s (Sobhanbabu) marriage is performed.
Cast and Crew
Nartanasala turned out to be a commercial blockbuster as well as a cult classic. Samudrala Sr. made great contribution with his script and lyrics. Kamalakara Kameswara Rao known for his genius in directing the mythologies, proved his worth. Excellent contributions came from art director T.V.S. Sarma, cinematographer M.A. Rahman and editor Veerappa.
NTR as Brihannala had to teach dance to the trained classical dancer L. Vijayalakshmi who played Uthara. In order to get the bhangimas right NTR took two hours of daily dance lessons for a month from the film’s choreographer Vempati (pedha) Sathyam.
S.V. Rangarao as Keechaka scored in the monologue scene in which he waits for Sairandhri. As Samudrala fell sick, his equally talented son Samudrala jr. wrote the monologue, Sandhaana Samayamidi Inkanu Sairandhri Raalede… which became very popular. It was one of the most fulfilling performances for Savitri. Kantharao made a brief presence as Lord Krishna and Lakshmi Rajyam as Subhadhra. Relangi played Uthara Kumara and Allu Ramalingaiah was his man Friday Vaalatulya. At the insistence of Kamalakara, the film’s assistant director Ravi Kondala Rao wrote the comedy dialogues for them besides creating the character, Vaalatulya which was not in the original script.
An upcoming actor then, Sobhanbabu felt nervous in the song sequences to dance along with L. Vijayalakshmi. Vempati Sathyam gave him a three day dance rehearsal with her and that helped.
Susarla Dakshinamurthy’s melodious score contributed largely to the film’s success. The most popular songs were Dariki Raaboku Raaboku Raja , Janani Siva Kaamini, Sakhiya Vivarinchave (Lyrics: Samudrala, Singer: P. Susheela), Naravara O Kuruvaraa (Samudrala; S. Janaki) and Evarikosam Ee Mandahasam (Sri Sri; Ghantasala, Susheela) besides the big hit Salalita Raga Sudharasa Saaram (Samudrala; Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, Bengaluru Latha).
Trivia
A dupe actress was employed in the long shots for Savitri for the scene in which Sairandhri was tied to a pole and dragged on a cart. When the dupe artiste did not turn up the next day, and another body double was used, Kamalakara commented, ‘so now we have a dupe for a dupe.’
The heartthrob of the early Telugu Talkies, Kanchanamala, reappeared on screen after a long gap in a cameo role, sharing screen space with Suryakantham.
Two real life wrestlers acted in the movie — Dandamudi Rajagopal as Bheema and Nellore Kantharao as Jeemutha Mallu.
When the producers felt the tune and lyrics for Salalitha Raaga Sudharasa Saaram were too classy and insisted on changing them, Samudrala and Susarla came up with a new song. However, assistant director Ravi Kondala Rao pleaded with them and Kamalakara to convince the producers to retain the first version. When Vempati Sathyam also voted for the original tune and lyric, the producers relented. Ghantasala and Janaki were to sing the song and since they were unavailable, the song was rendered by Balamuralikrishna and Bengaluru Latha.
Since it was Ravi Kondala Rao who assisted him on the sets, Kamalakara insisted on his name appearing first in the assistant director title card instead of his other assistant Gurudev. However, the producers preferred to leave out Ravi Kondala Rao’s name altogether.
At the Afro-Asian Film Festival in Jakarta, Nartanasala won the best lead actor award for S.V. Rangarao and best production design award for art director T.V.S. Sarma. The film won the All India Certificate of Merit for the second best feature film at the national film awards.
Replying to the felicitations by the film fraternity in Madras, T.V.S. Sarma, touching everyone’s heart, said in a choked voice that he was unable to raise both his hands to pay his respects to the many who taught him the art. Sarma had lost his left hand in an accident when he was 10.
Released on October 11, 1963, Nartanasala ran for 25 weeks.
