HYDERABAD: Telugu lyricist
Chembolu Seetharama Sastry
, popularly known as
Sirivennela
Seetharama Sastry, passed away on Tuesday. He was 66. He was a recipient of Padma Shri award in 2019.
Sastry was admitted to KIMS on November 24 for treatment of pneumonia.
“He was put on ECMO to support his lungs in ICU and was under close observation,” KIMS medical director Sambit Sahu said on Tuesday while announcing the death. The hospital said Sastry had died of lung cancer-related complications at 4.07 pm.
His body will be kept at the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce at Filmnagar from 7am on Wednesday for people to pay their respects.
It was through the film ‘Sirivennela’ directed by K Vishwanath that Sastry had carved a name for himself in Telugu film world and the song that he penned ‘Vidhatha talapuna’ was well received. The film’s name stuck to his original name since then. Sastry had penned more than 3,000 songs for 800 films.
Some of the songs that he wrote lyrics for, which brought him laurels include ‘Nammaku nammaku ee reyini’ from ‘Rudraveena’ film and ‘Akasamlo harivillu’ in ‘Swanakamalam’. His lyrics for songs in films like ‘Kshana Kshanam’, ‘Shubhalagnam’, ‘Bommarillu’ and ‘Ala Vaikuntapuram Lo’ also won him a lot of appreciation.
Sastry won the Nandi award for best
lyricist
several times for his songs, including for ‘Vidhatha talapuna’ in 1986.
He also won five Filmfare awards, including for films ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’ and ‘Kanche’.
He made his debut as a song writer in the film ‘Janani Janmabhoomi’ in 1984.
Condolences poured in. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said when he came to know that Sastry was unwell, he called up KIMS and spoke to doctors about his health condition and wished that he recover soon. He expressed grief at the passing away of Sastry. CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya, public representatives and film personalities condoled the death of Sastry.