Padma Sri awardee for the best comedy only next to Relangi and an eminent character artist Late Sri Allu Ramalingaiah (1922-2004), is well known for his special mark of serving the humour quotient. Today, the 1st of October is the great artist's 86th Birth Anniversary.
Fondly called as Allu, he began his film career in 1953 with 'Puttillu'. In his fifty year journey of tinselville, he has acted an enormous number of over 1000 films. 'Jai' a year before his demise was his last film.
He had a special mark of comedy, with unique mannerisms, apt comedic timing and his own special nasal voice. This gave him a special place amongst his contemporary comedians like Relangi, Rajubabu, Padmanabham, Ramana Reddy. He is also recognized for his unique character roles that exhibited negative shades with artists like RaoGopal Rao, Nagabhushanam. He also played many memorable roles in films like 'Mayabazar', 'Missamma', 'Sankarabharanam' and 'Yamagola'.
He was awarded the prestigious Padma Sri for his outstanding contribution to Telugu Cinema for the year 1990. He was also felicitated with Raghupathy Venkaiah award for his contribution to Telugu Cinema for the year 2001. Nritya Kala Mandali awarded him the title 'Hasya Kala Prapoorna' for his contribution to Praja Natya Mandali before he ventured in to the film industry.
His family is very closely associated with the industry having a star producer and distributor Allu Arvind his son, megastar Chiranjeevi his son-in-law and his brothers Nagababu and Pawan Kalyan along with Allu Arjun, Ram Charan Teja, Allu Sirish who are his grandsons.
Allu Ramalingaiah Kala Peetam, founded in the memory of this eminent artist, headed by Saripalli Kondala Rao, every year felicitates an eminent personality who outstandingly contributes to the film industry, with an award on this name. This year the recipient of the award is Kala Thapasvi, Padma Sri K.Viswanath.