Gollapudi Subbarao exclaims surprise when I reach out to him to talk about the Gollapudi Srinivas Award. There’s also some hesitation from him, as the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation has remained firm in its belief that the limelight should never be trained on them. “The winner is more important and the focus should be on them. Even at the function, you won’t find any focus on us or their family members. This is just to encourage a young debutant.”
The award is the brainchild of his father, veteran actor-screenwriter Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, and is the earliest — and for long, the only — recognition of a debut filmmaker. The first was given in 1998 for Leslie Carvalho’s The Outhouse, an Indian English film. “The foundation has its origins in tragedy. Srinivas, our youngest brother, was a man who was super passionate about films. During the shoot of his first film, Prema Pusthakam, he passed away. The film, Ajith Kumar’s debut, was completed by our father in the name of my brother. We thought it was a great film, deserving of some award.”
The film won the State Award, called the Nandi Award, for Best Screenplay, but not for its director. “My dad had written the screenplay, and had won numerous awards. So, this recognition wasn’t a big deal for him. He wanted something for his son, for whom he had written this story,” Subbarao says. But something very interesting happened, he says. “Srinivas, who was married for nine months before he passed away, had a baby boy whom we named Gollapudi Srinivas. When the Nandi Awards were given away by the Chief Minister in an open air theatre in Hyderabad, it began raining heavily. Srinivas’ wife, my sister-in-law, and her baby took refuge from the rain on stage, when my father’s name was called for the Best Screenplay award for Prema Pustakam. My father handed over the award to her son, Gollapudi Srinivas.”
I tell him it almost reads like a mythical story. “Strange, isn’t it? On the day of the award, the universe had conspired to have a Gollapudi Srinivas on stage.” He hasn’t shared this story to many people. “It’s the genesis of the Gollapudi Srinivas Award, a National Award announced every year on on March 17, the birthday of Srinivas, and given away on 12th August, the day he passed away.”
The foundation typically gets about 20-30 feature film submissions on average every year. “The nominees of the Aravindan Pursakaram awards in Kerala almost always are part of our long list. We also gather nominations directly from many first-time filmmakers.” Typically, there are about six Malayalam nominations, a couple from Kannada and Telugu, and about five from from English and Hindi. “Language is no barrier. Every film comes with subtitles.”
The jury panel has seen people like Kamal Haasan, Sreekar Prasad (editor), Kavithalaya Krishnan (actor who predominantly worked with KB), and Suhasini Maniratnam. “It is to be noted that we have at least one woman on the panel every year.” Once the nominations are narrowed to about five, the jury members, Subbarao and family, watch the films and sit down for a discussion. “It is during this discussion that the winner is selected.” How much does his own vote count in the final process? “I only have one vote. The same goes for my brother. Very rarely has it ever come down to that. The final decision generally rests with our Chairman, the great Singeetham Srinivas Rao.”
For Subbarao, it’s not just about giving away the award. “Those who win the award become a part of our family. We share numbers, celebrate birthdays, and attend family functions.” Their newest entrant to this family is director Prem Kumar, whose 96 became only the second Tamil film after Janaki Viswanathan’s Kutti to win this award. Subbarao remembers 96 as “a heart-touching realistic story.” He feels that all the 21 award-winning stories so far have been beautiful and in a sense, evocative of the spirit of Gollapudi Srinivas. “Hemanth Rao (who won for Godhi Banna Sadharan Mykattu) showed his second film Kaavaludaari’s trailer to me. Jayaprakash (who won for Lens) showed me a small clipping of his upcoming film, Mosquito Philosophy. These relationships endure.”
Subba Rao and the family never thought the Gollapudi Award would become as respectable. “It is just an endeavour to respect the memory of a boy we love and miss. This alleviates our pain a bit. I am happy it is being held in good standing.” With the 25th year of the award on the horizon, I ask if any great plans are in the offing. “We are just taking it one year at a time. I didn’t think we would travel this far. But as long as it is here, my ever-growing family of filmmakers make sure I don’t feel the pain of my brother’s absence too much. What more can I ask for?”