Big Brother of Tollywood

Tammareddy Bharadwaja is known for his frankness and humility. Everybody in the industry calls him Annayya (Big Brother). The man behind solving the labour issues in Tollywood, talks to us about his accidentally being in a career, he is made for

His love life could be well made into a film for he had an interesting one. Tammareddy Bharadwaja is the president and secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Film Employees Federation, president of All India Confederation, and has worked for nine years as president of AP Film Directors’ Association. Now he is working as secretary to the AP Film Employees Cooperative Housing Society and is a managing member. Congratulate him on his achievements and he says, “I may have achieved a lot in terms of positions but I don’t believe I have done anything worthwhile yet! I feel so, especially for my role of a trade union leader, I could have done more.”

Recalling the start to his career, he shares, “Although I come from a filmy background, since my father, Tammareddy Krishna Murthy was a producer and my brother a director, I worked as a junior engineer in the irrigation department. One day my friends and I decided to make this film. With a friend’s help, I made my first film and it also happened to be the launch movie of Chiranjeevi. Luckily for me it was a huge hit.”

Going on to elaborate more on why he doesn’t consider himself successful, Tamareddy says, “I have to be honest, that I got the platform and respect because of my background. We were the first film family of Hyderabad in our times.” He continues, “My father’s name definitely helped me, but it was also a lot of hard work and constant effort to do good cinema.” He candidly adds, “I was out of business a lot of times, it was bad enough to not get two square meals a day. What kept going was the support and love the industry gave me and also the believe in myself. ThoughI can’t deny my family’s contribution to my success.”

Talking about his biggest achievement till date, the director – producer smiles modestly and says,“During the time when there were issues of the labour industry of Telugu cinema and Tollywood was being considered to be sent back to Chennai for good, Suresh Babu, Shyam Prasad Reddy, me and few others were thrown into handling the labour union problems. We worked day and night and resolved it.”

He then goes to add,“I don’t think I can ever say that this would not happen if I didn’t do it, but I can definitely claim a stake in this achievement.”

With so many things up his sleeve managing family time might be a challenge. “My wife never lets me leave the house without breakfast, whether it’s 4 am or 10 am. I also have my lunch and dinner at home if I am in town,” explains Tammareddy on how much time he is home.

Tammareddy had eloped, in a time when love marriage was considered a taboo. “We had married against the wishes of both our parents,” remarks Tamareddy. Though credit for working the marriage out goes to his wife, “My wife has always been by my side. I believe that when you love someone, you will invariably do anything to make it work,” he says going on to add, “You have to make adjustments and compromises for relationships. It’s also very important to be truthful to your partner at all times.”

None of his three daughters have followed him into the industry. In fact, his daughters were never interested in what their father did. They never stepped inside the studio. Professionally they were completely detached. “But emotionally we have been quite close even though now they are married,” quips the father.

Big name but humble to the core

Wife Vani Tammareddy, says, “He is a great man in my eyes. He never had huge ambitions. In spite of being a big producer, he always used to travel by bus or scooter. I remember how he used to go back to join a job after every movie and disappear in to the crowd with everyone else.”

On him as a husband, she says, “He is honest, transparent and a ensures he is always there for his family.”

Charitha, his eldest daughter and twins Shwetha and Smitha make up his three doting daughters.

Charitha says, “He has always taken care of us. He has been with us whenever we needed him. His work never stood in the way of the family.” She continues, “Even when we were married he left no stone unturned. He taught us humility and to value every person”

Category: Profiles