Jaggayya, Kongara

Kongara Jaggayya, Jaggayya also spelled Jaggaiah, (born December 31, 1928, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India—died March 5, 2004, Chennai, Tamil Nadu), Indian actor, broadcaster, political leader, and poet who was a leading performer in Telugu-language plays and films.

Jaggayya made his stage debut at the age of 11. He attended Andhra Christian College in Guntur while continuing to act onstage. In 1944 he left college to become a journalist for the Telugu newspaper Desabhimaani but returned a year later to complete his degree. After graduation he taught for a short period in the high school at Duggirala, in his home district. For three years he worked as a broadcaster with All India Radio, during which time the sonorous voice that was to become his trademark earned him a large fan following among listeners.

Jaggayya’s first screen role was as the hero in the film Priyuralu (1952), which made a disappointing showing at the box office. He decided to return to his home village when his other two films Ardasham (1952) and Beedala Aasthi also fared poorly. With the success of his next two ventures, Bangaru Papa (1954) and Ardhangi (1955), however, his career began in earnest. Over the next several decades Jaggayya acted in hundreds of films.

In 1967 Jaggayya was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, where he served one term as the member from Ongole (Andhra Pradesh).

Jaggayya was celebrated for his translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali into Telugu, and he also translated Tagore’s play Sacrifice into that language. In 1992 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of the Indian government’s highest civilian awards, for his contributions to the arts.