Venkata Narasimha Reddy, professionally known as V. N. Reddy (20 November 1914 – 29 December 1991), was an Indian cinematographer and director who predominantly worked in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

films for over thirty years starting from 1943. One of the pioneers of Indian cinematography, Reddy was born in

Kadapa Kadapa (colonial spelled Cuddapah) is a city in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located in the Rayalaseema region, and is the district headquarters of YSR Kadapa district. As of the 2022 Census of India, the city had a popula ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and was brought up in

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city is loca ...

Career

He developed a passion for

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

at a very young age. ''Badalti Duniya'', his debut movie, was released in the year 1943. He first excelled in black-and-white photography and film making and then shifted to colour film making. His noted films are ''Aag'' (1948), ''Hulchul'' (1951), ''Baiju Bawra'' (1952), ''Meenar'' (1954), ''Chori Chori'' (1956), ''Kashmir Ki Kali'' (1964), ''Do Badan'' (1966), ''

Upkar ''Upkar'' () is a 1967 Indian Hindi film directed by Manoj Kumar. The film held the top spot at the box office in 1967. It was Manoj Kumar's directorial debut film. Then India's prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri suggested Kumar to make a film b ...

'' (1967), ''Purab Aur Paschim'' (1970) and ''Do Chor'' (1972). ''Aag'' (1948) was made by a group of people in their twenties, Reddy being the oldest. It is considered one of the most significant films of all time. Writing about Reddy's work for the song ''Dulhan Chali Pehan Chali'' from the film ''Purab Aur Paschim'' (1970), the Indian film review website, ''Passion for Cinema'' states

Lakh Tandon Lekh Tandon (13 February 1929 – 15 October 2017) was an Indian filmmaker and actor. He had directed numerous Bollywood movies and Indian TV Serials. He gained national fame due to success of his directorial ventures Professor (1962 film), Prin ...

and

V. Gopi Krishna Dasari Gopi Krishna, better known as V. Gopi Krishna, was a cinematographer and Film producer, producer in the Indian film industry. He was born in Brahmana Koduru in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. His parents are Dasari Venkateswarlu and Sar ...

were Reddy's assistants. Reddy also tried his hand at directing movies like ''Ganga Gauri Samvadam'' (Telugu - 1958), ''Sengottai Singam'' (Tamil - 1958), ''Intika Deepam Illalu'' (Telugu - 1961), ''Ananda Jyoti'' (Tamil - 1963), and ''Zahreeli'' (1977) among others. Ravikant Reddy, one of Reddy's six children, who at an early age of 13 to 14 years was trained and apprenticed under his father, is a noted cinematographer himself.

Partial filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reddy, V. N. People from Kadapa Nandi Award winners Telugu film cinematographers 1914 births 1991 deaths Cinematographers from Andhra Pradesh 20th-century Indian film directors Telugu film directors Tamil film directors 20th-century Indian photographers Film directors from Andhra Pradesh