On 12th August 1992, a huge tidal wave in a Vizag beach washed away the young filmmaker Gollapudi Srinivas, son of veteran character actor Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, during the shooting of his debut film Prema Pusthakam, which was also the debut film of Tamil star Thala Ajith. With this shocking incident, not just a person lost his son but a young man’s dream of becoming a director was nipped in the bud.
Not only Gollapudi Maruthi Rao completed and released his son’s film after the tragedy, but as an ode to his departed son, he even instituted the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation, which has been celebrating the best achievements of debut film directors across the country since 1998. By awarding these debut filmmakers, Gollapudi Maruthi Rao cherishes his son’s success through them. A memento and a cash prize of Rs. 1,50,000 will be awarded to the best debut director and a guest speech will be given by an eminent film personality every year.
So far, popular filmmakers like Aamir Khan (Taare Zameen Par), Indraganti Mohana Krishna (Grahanam), Anushka Rizvi (Peepli Live) etc are some of the recipients of this prestigious award. Reputed filmmakers like Kamal Haasan, K Balachander, K Vishwanath etc were some of the eminent filmmakers who gave their guest speeches during the presentation ceremonies.
Yesterday, the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Award was presented to Agra based young director Sanjeev Gupta for his debut film Q. During the glittering ceremony, Megastar Chiranjeevi said that many award function organisers have degraded the value of film awards, but Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Award is one such award that continues to touch all the families.
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