Kongara Jaggayya

Kongara Jaggaiah (31 December 1926 – 5 August 2004; also transliterated as Jaggaiah) was an Indian Film Actor from Telugu cinema & Theater. He was popularly known as "Kanchu Kantam" Jaggaiah (Telugu) for his booming voice.Jaggayya was born in a well-to-do family in Morampudi village near Tenali in Guntur district. He started acting at the age of 11, with the role of Lava in a Hindi play. As a student, he joined the Congress party in Tenali, which was involved in the Indian Independence Movement at that time. After his school education, he joined a periodical named Desabhimani (meaning "Patriot") as a journalist. Later he worked as an editor for the weekly Andhra Republic. He joined the Andhra-Christian College in Guntur for his higher studies, where N. T. Rama Rao, (in his later days) also happened to study at the same time. Both of them acted together in several plays; Jaggaiah won the best actor award in three successive years. He got trained in the art of painting under the guidance of Adivi Bapiraju, a famous painter. After working as a teacher for a brief while, he became a news anchor.He debuted in movies with the role of the hero in Tripuraneni Gopichand's Priyuralu (lover-girl). However, this and his subsequent movies did not do well. He came back into reckoning when two of his successive movies, Ardhangi and Bangaru Paapa did very well. He was very active in Telugu films from 1950s to 1970s and later, acted occasionally till his death. He played several roles such as hero, second lead, comedian and villain in several movies.

Actor