Perhaps his name should have been on the list of
Guinnes book of world records for being the most prolific writer
,the name Kovvali might not have evoked thoughts those who do not access to Telugu language
,even the younger generation of present time Telugus hardly know the name since most of his novels are not at disposal for several reasons
.But he created a record by penning more than 1000 novels
,true
,the older generation still lost in memories whenever his name come up on any occasion.
His full name was Kovvali Lakshmi Narasimha Rao( 1912 - 1975) and he was popularly known as Kovvali.Detective,social issues,Tragedy,Comedy,Romance,Folk,reformation,Women welfare whatever the theme was not left of his observation.Kovvali almost touched every interesting topic of the human psyche.He made no reservations choosing the subject.And one more thing,his peak time was 1935 to 1975.Every thing he wrote turned into gold by attracting scores of readers.Kovvali had chosen simple style to reach his writings to the common reader.Those were the days strictest traditional style was only honored and the rest was treated as no worthy literature.
Kovvali entirely trespassed the rule and his only aim was the common reader
,his novels always at the limit of 100 pages
,that means the reader should enjoy and enlighten in the possible limited time
.Yes
,his foresight was proved right
.He contributed a lot in terms of reading habit among Telugus in
the early generations and the due credit should be given in this respect.
Every new beginning has its own woes.His first novel was Palle Paduchu ( A Village Belle) ,received moderate success and he was struggling with successive novels.One day a miracle happened,see,every man's strong conviction receives God's blessings.He gave a new script to a publisher based at Rajahmundry, Veera Venkayya & Sons, but the publisher was pondering over its success ,then a postman came to the publisher to deliver the daily mail,eventually read the script on the spot and said to the publisher "sir...this kind of novels look very good and time saving,not only that a great entertainment too".
The prudent publisher understood the inner message of the unwelcome reader
.And published it and circulated at the bus stations and rail stations
.All the copies were sold and in addition the readers asked for if there were any books like these
.Immediately the publisher gave advance amount for more four novels and Kovvali obliged it happily
.His only mission was writing for the life he realized it. Not only that
,he honored the destiny.
He shifted his base to Madras and wrote six cinema
stories i.e., Talli
prema,Santhi
,Maa Gopi
,Sipayi Kuturu
,Beedala Assthi
,Sri Rama Anjaneya Yuddham
.Interestingly, his story titles were also very intriguing like Dancing girl
,Doctor's wife
,Vagabond prince
,Church bell
,Burma lady and so on apart from Telugu titles
.At times, Kovvali wrote one novel in one day
,on the publisher's request within a night he finished one or two novels
.That was the incredible market for his books in those times.
During 1935 to 1975
,he had penned 1001 novels in Telugu and rocked the generation with his thoughts
,especially Kovvali along with his popular style adopted the sense of women's freedom and progressive outlook in his writings
.Fortunately Vedagiri Rambabu brought out a book on Kovvali this year and that uphold his life work in a befitting manner.