Upadhyayula Suryanarayana Rao

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Upadhyayula Suryanarayana Rao (1923-1971) was a Telugu playwright and journalist
who lived and worked in Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh. He was the grandson of the
pandit Ajjada Adibhatla Narayana Dasu. A school drop-out, he educated himself in
literature, history and philosophy. He was actively associated with the Telugu
stage and was one of the founding members of the Sri Vijayarama Nataka Kala
Parishat, which regularly conducted drama competitions. He was often invited by
other organisers as a judge for drama competitions. He was associated with the
Praja Socialist Party in its early years.

He began his journalistic career as a freelancer writing for Roopavani (a Telugu

film and politics monthly published from Madras) and Swatantra (a political
fortnightly published in Telugu and English from Madras). In later years he also
contributed articles to Jyothi (a Telugu weekly political tabloid published from
Vijayawada). He worked for Andhra Prabha and Indian Express as correspondent from
1962 to 1971. In the 1960s he worked as the associate editor of The Advertiser, a
local weekly. He edited and published Navanitham, the first digest type magazine in
Telugu.

Suryanarayana Rao (Upadhyayula or USu for his readers) was known for his biting
satire. In a special issue of The Advertiser, he published "Nakamlo Gurajada
Jaadalu", a tongue-in-cheek imaginary interview with Gurajada Appa Rao, that
satirized politicization of literature.

He translated and adapted Rabindranath Tagore's Kabuliwallah, as a shadow play for

the Telugu stage. Another of his plays, Vijayanagara Vaibhavamu was broadcast on
All India Radio in its For the Universities programme. He translated Somerset
Maugham's play Penelope into Telugu as Pankajakshi, which was serialized in Andhra
Prabha weekly and was later published in a book form. He translated into Telugu and
published a selection of Guy de Maupassant's short stories.

References[edit]
The Registrar of Newspapers of India, Government of India lists NAVANITHAM as a
monthly published by U Suryanarayana Rao in Vizianagaram. It also lists The
Advertiser as a weekly published by K Nageswara Rao in the same district.