Jayadeva’s writings for two years as ‘best film book’

Author, researcher, senior journalist and Nandi Award winner for best film critic Dr. Rentala Jayadeva has recently been awarded the prestigious ‘Gaddar Film Award’ by the Telangana State Government. His book ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel’, which explores many aspects of our film history that have gone unnoticed, has been selected as the ‘Best Film Book’ for the year 2024. Jayadeva’s work has received this honor in the Gaddar Film Awards, which the Telangana government has decided to give to the best films released in 2024. The expert jury set up by the government announced this at a press conference held in Hyderabad on Thursday.
This book ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel’ is the result of Jayadeva’s years of research on the history of the early steps of South Indian language films. This is a rare work that has excavated many aspects that have not yet been recorded in our film history. From the days of silent films, when puppets were taught on screen and until the early days of talkies, which were separated into separate branches according to languages, this is a comprehensive and analytical account of many unknown developments in our Indian cinema, especially our Telugu cinema, with evidence. The author Jayadeva painstakingly collected authentic sources such as newspaper information and photos from almost a hundred years ago… with rare information… This film history was written with
Rentala Jayadeva has unearthed many new facts about the first South Indian language talkie film ‘Kalidas’ (1931). In fact, he said that it was not a film, but a collection of three short films, and that the main part of it, ‘Kalidas’, was a 4-reel long short film made entirely in Telugu. He proved it unequivocally with the evidence of the past. While the Tamils ​​keep claiming it as their first talkie and including it in their history… the complete Telugu dialogues reminded us that the Telugu people have left that film out of our film history calculations. In this way, he has written down the history of our early Telugu film, which we are ignoring.
Jayadeva has provided many historical facts related to the first talkies that came out in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam cinemas in this work. Nearly 2,000 extremely rare press releases and photos have been included in this book. ‘EMSCO’, a prestigious book publishing company with a history of 90 years, has published this 566-page work. It has been praised by scholars and laymen and has gained recognition in the reading world as an authentic history book. And so… the Telangana state government has now announced the prestigious Gaddar Telangana Film Award for this work as the ‘Best Film Book’ for the year 2024.
Apart from interviewing many celebrities from that time to the present day, Jayadeva has also collected valuable information from past interviews of those of that time and included it in this book ‘Mana Cinema… First Reel’. He said that not only the above details but also the design of the films, the efforts made for it, the selection of actors, the difficulties faced by the producers for their release, the creativity shown by the directors of that time amidst many limitations, the nature of the film production – distribution – exhibition sectors at that time, the methods used in the film business, the developments that came with time… all are eye-catching in this work.
Dr. Rentala Jayadeva is a renowned writer, researcher, feature writer, film analyst and journalist in the Telugu language. He has been continuously contributing to the field of journalism for more than three and a half decades now. Jayadeva has inherited the literary and journalistic legacy of his father, a prominent progressive poet, author of nearly 200 books, journalist and veteran Rentala Gopalakrishna. He has become one of the very few accomplished journalists who are carrying forward the flag of the old generation of journalistic values ​​in the new generation. Jayadeva’s editorials, special articles, film reviews, special news articles, analyses, in-depth TV and press interviews with celebrities are familiar to the public and the industry. His works, which are read without stopping, not only impress the readers, but also become the subject of discussion many times.
Rentala Jayadeva had also previously discovered the correct release date of the first full-length ten-reel Telugu talkie ‘Bhakta Prahlada’ in his research. He provided evidence and corrected the mistakes that had been circulating for decades regarding Telugu Cinema Day. His authoritative research, which changed the history of Telugu cinema, was openly accepted by prominent historians and film luminaries. With Jayadeva’s research being accepted worldwide, it is noteworthy that today the Telugu film industry has revised our Telugu Cinema Day and is officially celebrating ‘Telugu Cinema Day’ on February 6, which he discovered.
Recognizing Rentala Jayadeva’s distinguished work, the then government of Andhra Pradesh selected him for the prestigious ‘Nandi’ award. The Nandi award was announced for the ‘Best Film Critic’ for 2011. The Telangana government awarded him the Gaddar Award for this investigative book that turned the history of Telugu cinema into a new direction. Rentala Jayadeva, who did unprecedented research on the history of Telugu cinema and revealed many new things, has also been recognized by the ‘Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce’, the representative body of the entire Telugu film industry. It is noteworthy that he was recently specially honored by celebrating the correct release date of ‘Bhakta Prahlada’.