{{Short description|Film director}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}} {{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}} {{distinguish|P. Pullayya}}{{family name hatnote|Chittajallu|lang=Telugu}}{{Infobox person | name = C. Pullayya | image = C.PullaiahImg.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | native_name = చిత్తజల్లు పుల్లయ్య | birth_name = Chittajallu Pullayya | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1898|01|01}} | birth_place = Kakinada, India | death_date = {{death date|df=yes|1967|10|06}} (aged 69) | death_place = Madras, India | occupation = Director, producer | spouse = | awards = }}
'''Chittajallu Pullayya''' (1 January 1898 – 6 October 1967) was an Indian film director and screenwriter. He is one of the earliest film personalities in Telugu cinema being associated with the industry right from the silent era.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=C. Pullaiah – Indiancine.ma Wiki |url=https://wiki.indiancine.ma/wiki/C.%20Pullaiah |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=Indiancine.ma}}</ref>
Pullayya started his film career in 1921 as a camera apprentice to the 'father of Telugu cinema' Raghupati Venkaiah Naidu’s Star of the East in Madras, and at Kohinoor in Bombay. He was also the playwright for Kakinada-based Young Men’s Happy Club.
After gaining experience in filmmaking, he purchased a second-hand movie camera in 1924 in Bombay and returned to his native place Kakinada with an intention to make films in Andhra.<ref name="autogenerated2">{{Cite news |date=19 January 2007 |title=Reliving the reel and the real |work=The Hindu |location=Chennai, India |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/01/19/stories/2007011901020100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501115359/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/01/19/stories/2007011901020100.htm |archive-date=1 May 2007}}</ref> He made a silent three-reel short film ''Markandeya'' (1926 or 1931) in Kakinada.<ref>{{Cite news |last=W. Chandrakanth |date=9 February 2007 |title='Nijam cheppamantara, abaddham cheppamantara...' |work=The Hindu |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/02/09/stories/2007020901390100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070529031557/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/02/09/stories/2007020901390100.htm |archive-date=29 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Parthasarathy |first=R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uSleeGRjcvEC&q=C.+Pullayya |title=Andhra Culture: A Petal in Indian Lotus |date=1984 |publisher=Government of Andhra Pradesh |pages=128 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="shodhganga">{{cite web |last=Rao |first=Akkina Mareswara |date=1997 |title=Cultural and ideological mediation of Telugu cinema in colonial Andhra's Past (1931–1947) |url=http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/25594/7/07_chapter%202.pdf |access-date=15 March 2023 |website=Shodhganga}}</ref> To exhibit it he started a tent theatre named 'City Electric Cinema' and took the projector and chairs to various towns and exhibited the film, thus pioneering a movie theatre movement in Andhra.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=Narasimham |first=M. L. |date=7 November 2010 |title=Sati Savitri (1933) |work=The Hindu |url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/article871376.ece |accessdate=8 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113225918/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/article871376.ece |archive-date=13 November 2010 |quote=Pullayya can be called as the father of theatre movement in Andhra Pradesh. He made a silent film Markandeya. Since there was no facility to screen a film in Kakinada, he started a tent theatre, ‘City Electric Cinema' and showed the film much to the cheers of local people. He then took the projector and chairs to various towns and exhibited his film, thus pioneering a theatre movement.}}</ref> He later ran the permanent Minerva theatre.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Lavakusa (1963) |url=https://indiancine.ma/KTW |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=Indiancine.ma}}</ref>
In 1933, he made his first feature film ''Sati Savitri'' in Calcutta''.'' It was the first Telugu film produced by East India Film Company and received an honorary diploma at the 2nd Venice Film Festival. He then directed ''Lava Kusa'' (1934) and ''Sati Anasuya'' (1936), the first Telugu children's film made with sixty child actors.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="SoManyCinemas">{{cite book |title=So many cinemas: the motion picture in India|author=Bhagawan Das Garg|publisher=Eminence Designs|year=1996|isbn=81-900602-1-X |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wXRZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22East+India+Film+Company%22+-inpublisher:icon}}</ref> ''Lava Kusa'' was the first major commercial success in Telugu cinema. The film attracted unprecedented numbers of viewers to theatres and thrust the young industry into mainstream culture.<ref name="autogenerated2" />
He continued to direct films like ''Vara Vikrayam'' (1939), ''Maalati Madhavam'' (1940), ''Pakka Inti Ammayi'' (1953) under the East India Film Company.<ref name=":1" /> He directed ''Bala Nagamma'' (1942) and ''Apoorva Sahodarulu'' (1950) under Gemini Pictures after shifting base to Madras. He is well remembered for ''Lava Kusa'' (1963), the story of Lava and Kusa in Hindu epic ''Ramayana'', which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.<ref name="11thaward">{{cite web|url=http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm11thNFAAward.aspx|title=11th National Film Awards|publisher=International Film Festival of India|accessdate=13 September 2011|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170502124428/http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm11thNFAAward.aspx|archive-date=2 May 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Pullayya introduced Bhanumathi and Anjali Devi to the film industry through ''Vara Vikrayam'' (1939) and ''Gollabhama'' (1947) respectively.<ref name=":2" />
==Filmography==
# ''Ramadasu'' (1933) # ''Sati Savitri'' (1933) # ''Lava Kusa'' (1934) # ''Anasuya'' (1936) # ''Dhruva'' ''Vijayam'' (1936)<ref>{{Citation |title=C.Pullaiah {{!}} Chittajallu Pullaiah{{!}} తెలుగు సినీ పితామహుడు । చిత్తజల్లు పుల్లయ్య । సి.పుల్లయ్య |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w56q0_2RuY&t=368s |language=en |access-date=2022-10-10}}; Event occurs at 6:08</ref> # ''Chal Mohana Ranga'' (1937) # ''Dasavataramulu'' (1937) # ''Kasula Peru'' (1937) # ''Mohini Bhasmasura'' (1938) # ''Satyanarayana Vratam'' (1938) # ''Vara Vikrayam'' (1939) # ''Malathi Madhavam'' (1940) # ''Bala Nagamma'' (1942) # ''Narada Naradi'' (1946) # ''Gollabhama'' (1947) # ''Vindhyarani'' (1948) # ''Apoorva Sahodaralu'' (1950) # ''Sankranti'' (1952) # ''Pakka Inti Ammayi'' (1953) # ''Devanthakudu'' (1960) # ''Naan Kanda Sorgam'' (1960) # ''Lava Kusa'' (1963) # ''Paramanandayya Sishyula Katha'' (1966) # ''Bhuvana Sundari Katha'' (1967) # ''Bhama Vijayam'' (1967)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0700393}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pullaiah, C.}} Category:Telugu film directors Category:Indian male dramatists and playwrights Category:Indian theatre directors Category:Indian arts administrators Category:20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Category:1898 births Category:1967 deaths Category:People from Kakinada Category:Film people from East Godavari district Category:Film directors from Andhra Pradesh Category:Screenwriters from Andhra Pradesh Category:Telugu screenwriters Category:20th-century Indian male writers Category:20th-century Indian screenwriters