100 years of Indian cinema: A philatelic celebration by India Post

Film aficionados can now preserve the memories of legendary artistes of the India cinema in the form of attractive commemorative stamps, with the Department of Posts coming out with a set of such stamps depicting 50 iconic personalities of reel life. Released on May 3 in the form of six miniature sheets as a philatelic tribute to the centenary of Indian Cinema, these stamps portray all-time greats from the fields of acting, direction and music.

The first two miniature sheets consist of nine stamps each and comprise winners of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema for lifetime achievement, while the other four with eight stamps each depict other noted and respected personalities in the world of cinema.

Acting legends such as Prithviraj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Durga Khote, Dev Anand and Mehmood and Ruby Myers, acclaimed directors like Bhalji Pendharkar, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Nitin Bose, Tapan Sinha, Yash Chopra and noted musicians including Majrooh Sultanpuri, Naushad, R D Burman, O P Nayyar and Madan Mohan have been featured on the stamps.

//Indian express//

Father of south Indian cinema ignored in list of 50 icons :

The Telugu film industry may be gloating over the fact that three Telugu film personalities have figured among the all-time greats of Indian cinema in the postal stamps issued commemorating the 100 years of Indian cinema, but injustice has been done to the biggest of them all. Raghupathi Venkaiah, a Telugu, revered as the father of South Indian cinema, has been ignored in the list of the '50 iconic personalities of Indian cinema'. The postal stamps, brought out by the department of posts, were released by President Pranab Mukherjee on May 3. 

Such is the reverence for Raghupathi Venkaiah that the state government had instituted an award in his name in 1981 to honour film personalities for their contribution. The three Telugu personalities who have made it to the 'Iconic 50' are Allu Ramalingaiah, Bhanumathi Ramakrishna and S V Ranga Rao - all of whom are no more. Allu Ramalingaiah, a comedian and father-in-law of Union minister of state for tourism Chiranjeevi, acted in over 1,000 films. Bhanumathi was a singer-actor and S V Ranga Rao was well-known for portraying mythological roles with panache. Incidentally, Allu Ramalingaiah and Bhanumathi were recipients of the Raghupathi Venkaiah award. Hailing from Machilipatnam, Raghupathi Venkaiah, the son of an armyman, set up a photo studio in Madras at Mount Road in 1906. Spending as much as Rs 30,000 in those days, he imported a 'chronomegaphone' and started screening shorts films in 'tents'. He even went to Sri Lanka and Burma to screen movies.

//times of india-hyderabad//