Ramabrahmam Gudavalli was born in the village of Nandamuru in
1898 (or 1902)
. His father was Venkayya and mother was Bapamma.
Satyanarayana Viswanadha
was also born in the same village. Ramabrahmam was educated in Indupalli,
Gudivada and Bandaru. He was married at the age of eighteen to Saradamba.
Later he gave up his education and joined the non-cooperation movement by
burning foreign clothes in his father-in-law’s house.
In 1924, he started “Friends and Co,” a stationery shop. This store became a meeting place for artists and litterateurs for their discussions and meetings, instead of business, and soon it was closed down in 1930. In 1931, he conducted the akhilandhra rytu mahasabha (Andhra Farmers Meeting) as the chairman of the organizing committee. In 1934, he was elected as the secretary of Andhra nataka parishattu.
He wrote “kammakula charitra (history of kamma tribe).” He went to Cuddapah to do research on kamma tribe. There, he did research on gandikota (fort of gandi) also and wrote a drama on the destruction of gandikota, entitled ‘gandikota patanam,’ which became very popular and was played in many cities.
Later he moved to Chennai (Madras) and ran “prajamitra” magazine for ten years as an editor. During that period, prajamitra office used to be the meeting place for all visiting Telugu artists and writers. He used to write articles for other magazines like samadarsini, vaadi etc.
Telugu cinema attracted him from the magazine and he founded “saaradhi chitra” banner. His first movie was “draupadeevastraapaharanam .” Producer P.V.Das and Ramabramham, visted Bangalore, and brought Rajeshwara Rao to Madras and cast him as Lord Krishna in their "Sri Krishna Leelalu " in 1934. One of the milestones in the Telugu film industry was malapilla (1938) directed by Ramabrahmam under the saradhi chitra banner. Later, he directed several other movies such as raitu bidda , patni, mayalokam, pantulamma, illalu, apavaadu etc. He left unfinished movies like quit india, palnati yuddam etc, due to his untimely death in 1946. However, palnati yuddam was completed by L.V. Prasad. For more visit: Telugu Cnema History by Parchuri Srinivas and Filmography of Gudavall i.
References: nooruguru telugu pramukhulu, by M. L. Narasimharao
Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, May 2002