Nerella Venu Madhav (28 December, 1932-19 June 2018) was an Indian impressionist and ventriloquist. Nerella Venu Madhav was born in Mattewada, Warangal, Telangana state to an industrialist, Hari and his wife Srilakshmi. As a young boy, Venu Madhav used to play pranks by imitating people in his village to perfection. He used to mimic the people who visited his house and friends. His father was erudite in six languages and several scholars used to visit his house. The literary and scholarly discussions in his house had a deep impact on Venu Madhav in his childhood.
Childhood
Venu Madhav was a movie buff and used to imitate several eminent Telugu film and drama actors. In high school Venu Madhav acted in several dramas and received few awards as well. He was particularly fond of humorous plays. He completed his matriculation in 1950, and joined Warangal Arts and Science College for bachelor’s degree in 1952. The principal of the college, B. V. Ram Narasu was very impressed by his talent, and even presented him with ₹60 as scholarship for good conduct, despite opposition from some lecturers. He encouraged him to take up mimicry. With that scholarship money Venu Madhav saw several popular English movies and started imitating the actors and their dialogues along with back ground music. Impressed with Venu Madhav’s mimicry, his principal B.V. Ram Narasu blessed Venu Madhav saying that one day he would become a world-renowned artiste.
Career
He worked as a school teacher in Mattewad Middle School in Hanamkonda in 1953. Later he completed his graduation through private studies. He started a diploma course in Mimicry at Telugu University, a first in the world and worked as a Mimicry faculty. He had deep interest in Telugu, Urdu and English literature, and was fond of Indian classical music.
He started his mimicry career in 1947 and became popular by mimicking the voice of legendary Telugu actor, V. Nagayya (popularly known as Chittor Nagayya). In 1953 Venu Madhav performed in Theatres Federation Conference at Rajahmundry under the chairmanship of the famous Hindi film actor Balraj Sahani and in the presence of eminent stage artistes like Garikapati Raja Rao, Dadi Govindarajulu, Sthanam Narasimha Rao, Chaganti Sanyasi Raju. He performed mimicry in Telugu, English, Urdu, Hindi, Tamil effortlessly and used to replicate musical instruments as background score in his performances. He has toured all over the world and was popular for imitating world leaders, Hollywood celebrities and background score. His mimicry of a scene in the popular Hollywood movie, Mckenna’s Gold was legendary. (The author was fortunate to listen to this in Chennai in early 1980s when Venu Madhav was felicitated with Raja-Lakshmi Award) His imitation of Pritviraj Kapur in Mughal-e-Azam; imitation of Tamilnadu politician Karunanidhi’s voice became very popular. He would imitate several national icons including Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subash Chandrabose with ease, and actors like NT Rama Rao and SV Ranga Rao. He had the knack of imitating prominent personalities, without offending them. Moreover, he also received their validation for his perfection.
Venu Madhav was encouraged by Telugu film producer B.N. Reddy to act in films. He acted in 12 Tollywood movies that includes popular Telugu movie Gudhachari 116 starring Krishna and Jayalalitha.
Awards and honours
- Padma Shri for performing arts from the Government of India in 2001.
- Raja-Lakshmi Award in 1981 by Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation Chennai.
- Kala Prapoorna title from Andhra University (Vishakhapatnam) in 1977
- Honorary Doctorates by Jawahar Lal Nehru Technological University (1987) and Kakatiya University (1992)
- NTR Atma Gourav Puraskar in 1998.
- Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Telugu Book of Records & Telangana Recordula Pustakam (The Book of Telangana Records) on his 83rd birthday, on 28 December 2015 at Hanumakonda.
- Gajarohanam by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam.
- Government of Telangana felicitation on Telangana Formation Day in 2018.
- India Post honored by releasing a postal cover in December 2017.
Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) has named a street in Warangal city after him. He was the first mimic in the world who performed at the United Nations Organisation, New York City (1971). He was nominated as a Member of Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh by the then Chief Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao in 1972 to ’78.
Venu Madhav served as Sangeet Natak Academy member (1974-78), member of South Zone Cultural Committee, Tanjore. He extensively travelled abroad to perform mimicry and visited Singapore, Malaysia, West Germany, England, France, America, Canada, Lebanon, South Africa, Mauritius, UAE, Fiji Islands.
Former Presidents Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, V.V. Giri, Jnani Zail Singh, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao, many former chief ministers and Governors had watched the mimicry of Venu Madhav and honoured him.
He started a trust and every year on his birthday on 28th December honoured eminent scholars and artistes with a cash award of Rs.10,000. He wrote a book on art of mimicry in Telugu language called Mimicry Kala. An auditorium in Warangal is named in his honour as Dr. Nerella Venu Madhav Kalaa Pranganam.
Venu Madhav died on 19 June 2018 in Warangal where he lived all his life, after a brief illness. He married Shobhavati in 1975 and has two sons and two daughters. His daughter Lakshmi Tulasi, a mimicry artiste was his student. His birthday, 28 December, is celebrated as World Mimicry Day by his students.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Nerella Venu Madhav who is considered as father of Indian mimicry brought recognition and professional touch to mimicry which was considered hitherto as just an entertainment.
–Dr. B.N.V. Parthasarathi
