Media baron Cherukuri Ramoji Rao who owned a huge business empire has died while undergoing treatment for a heart ailment at a corporate hospital in Hyderabad in the early hours of Saturday (June 8). The Telangana government has announced his funeral with state honours.
He is survived by his wife Tatineni Rama Devi, elder son Kiron Prabhakar, daughters-in-law Sailaja Kiron and Vijayeswari, three granddaughters and a grandson. He was 87.
Rao was admitted to a hospital with breathlessness on June 5 and underwent stent placement. He was put on ventilator on Friday afternoon as his condition deteriorated.
Rao, the media baron
Rao was the chairman and editor-in-chief of Eenadu group which publishes the leading Telugu daily Eenadu from 23 centres, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru with a print run of two million copies daily. He is credited with the introduction of tabloids for district editions of Eenadu which was the first for any Telugu newspaper. The practice has now percolated to location-specific editions in Hyderabad and other major cities
He was also founder of ETV network of 15 channels in various languages, most of which are now owned by Reliance Industries-controlled media conglomerate Network 18. The Telugu channels in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are retained by the group.
Rao shot to fame with the launch of the Visakhapatnam edition of Eenadu from an abandoned cinema studio on August 10, 1974. The first day of the edition was a big hit as the first page, with bold headlines, made the announcement of the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. The edition was launched specifically from Visakhapatam as no other newspaper had publication centre there.
A second hand printing machine acquired from Kerala for Rs 96,000 was used to print 4,000 copies a day from the premises that was taken on a 33-year lease. The same year Hyderabad edition of the newspaper was launched and, within four years, it became an undisputed leader in the newspaper industry overtaking Andhra Prabha.
Humble beginnings
Rao was mainly a business entrepreneur who started off his career to become a billionaire with Margadarsi Chit Funds in Hyderabad in 1962. Along with two other partners, he launched the firm to receive small savings from investors. Today, it has grown to become a Rs 7,750-crore outfit employing 4,000 staff across the country.
Born in a poor agricultural family in Pedaparupudi village of Krishna district in Madras Presidency, British India in 1936, he has lived in Delhi in mid-1950s to work as an artist with an advertising agency and has done odd jobs simultaneously. He slept on a mat in a room that did not even have a table fan. It was said that finding a match for him was difficult as no one came forward to give him bride. His marriage with Rama Devi in 1961 took place on a condition that he would move to Hyderabad, which changed his fortune.
The business empire
After his success in Margadarsi Chit Funds, he started an advertising agency in his elder son’s name in 1965 with his Delhi experience. Then he diversified into setting up a fertilizer outlet with his agricultural background and an outdoor advertising agency to erect hoardings of Coromandel Fertilisers and Dunlop tyre company in 1970. He personally oversaw the work standing on the roads in Hyderabad.
It was Margadarsi which fuelled many of his expansion projects later. He forayed into film production through Usha Kiron Movies with hits such as Mayuri and Mouna Poratam.
Notably, the Annadata programme in Rao’s Telugu ETV channel, telecasted in the morning hours, which portrayed lives of farmers and methods of cultivation had the highest TRP ratings in the past. The magazines Annadata, and Sitara to review Telugu movies were also started by him.
He also owns Priya Foods which primarily sells pickles apart from Mayuri Films in which he was involved in distribution of films after production and a range of other businesses from ship breaking, hotels, handicrafts to fruit drinks and nut powder.
The Kalanjali shopping malls which sells fabrics for women is run by his elder daughter-in-law Sailaja Kiron while Dolphin group of hotels which meets hospitality requirements at Ramoji Film City and Visakhapatnam is controlled by his younger daughter-in-law Vijayeswari. His son Suman Prabhakar who was a well known name among TV viewers as a writer, director and actor died after battling cancer for five years at the age of 45 in 2012.
What is significant to Rao’s expansion mode in business was his refusal to have his name on any of the projects except Ramoji Film City which is certified by Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest film studio complex at Abdullapurmet on the outskirts of Hyderabad. A public school in the name of his wife Rama Devi was also started at the entrance to the film city six years later.
Rao constructed the filmcity, spread over 2,000 acres, during the rule of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with which he was friendly in 1996. He lived in a four storied house atop a hillock that overlooked a helipad for visiting VVIPs. He sat in all white, wearing a half sleeve white shirt, trousers and white shoes, in a gilded throne — as shown in mythological movies. He spoke to visitors sitting in the throne
Politcal favouritism and controversies
The acquisition of such large chunk of land by Rao was mired in controversy, inviting threat to his life from Naxalites. He lived under close security and rare movement outside the complex since then.
The local offices of Eenadu newspaper and studios of TV channels were also shifted to the film city. The staff of Eenadu went on a strike protesting against the shift. They said it was done to escape payment of 30% house rent allowance to cut down on salary costs in a rural area with lower housing rents.
The Congress government headed by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had also slapped criminal cares against Margadarsi for accepting deposits as a non-banking final company against Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms. Following a charge that Margadarsi was unable to refund deposits of investors, Rao resorted to 26% sale of stake in Ushodaya Enterprises to private equity firm Blackstone group.
The Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy government also booked Margadarsi group on similar charges after Jagan was at the helm in the residual state of Andhra Pradesh. Like his father, Jagan used his Sakshi daily to expose Rao’s business practices.
Eenadu was seen as the mouthpiece of TDP when the party was formed in 1982. A reporter and a photographer of the daily followed the 1938-model Chevrolet van of the party founder N.T. Rama Rao, labelled ‘Chaitanya Ratham,’ to publish huge photos of him shaving and bathing by the roadside in the run up to the 1983 assembly elections. The TDP won 202 out of 293 assembly seats to form the first non-Congress government in the state.
Rao did not show the same patronage to NTR when he was dethroned by N. Chandrababu Naidu during the former’s third term in 1996. NTR and his wife Laxmi Parvati were made to wait at the entrance to Rao’s house at Chikoti Gardens in Begumpet for ten minutes before he met the couple. They sought his help seeking better coverage of news for NTR-TDP against injustice by Naidu but Rao hardly gave them ear.
Rao was also strictly opposed to formation of the Telangana state though former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao who pioneered the statehood agitation had called on him to seek help.
When it became clear that separate Telangana would be a reality, Rao secured a licence for ETV Telugu channel exclusively for Telangana three months before bifurcation of the state. Eenadu newspaper also started a Telangana slant after Chandrasekhar Rao’s meeting with the media baron.
Rao called on Narendra Modi after he became prime minister seeking help for construction of Om religious city, a spiritual centre with models of 108 famous temples across the country, near Ramoji Film City. Among several recognitions, Rao was conferred with Padma Vibhushan in 2016, four Filmfare awards in the south and National Filmfare award. He was also the chairman of Editors Guild of India.
