Chandrababu Naidu recalled how Bapu won widespread acclaim for his sketches, with the phrase Bapu Bomma becoming synonymous with a beautiful Telugu girl.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu extended his deepest condolences over the death of cartoonist and filmmaker Bapu.
The Chief Minister said that the death of Bapu was an immeasurable loss to the Telugu people and to the world of arts and cinema.
Sattiraju Lakshmi Narayana, famously known as Bapu, was a great Indian illustrator, cartoonist, movie director, writer and journalist.
The Chief Minister recalled how Bapu had won international acclaim for his sketches depicting Telugu women, with the phrase Bapu Bomma ("Bapu's sketch") becoming synonymous with a beautiful Telugu girl. Through his unique style, he blended Telugu culture with modern techniques, the CM said, and added that Bapu also had an enormous impact on contemporary Telugu arts, movies etc.
Born on 15 December 1933 in Narsapur, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, Bapu was awarded the Padmasri in 2013 for his contribution to Indian art and cinema. He was an ace filmmaker in the Telugu film industry.
Bapu introduced a style of painting that uses simple bright colours. His unique style of economy in strokes, freehand drawing and lack of background clutter made his paintings simple, beautiful and popular. He specialized in Hindu mythological characters, and painted the Hindu epic Ramayana as a pictorial story.
In his paintings, characters like Shiva, Bhima and Duryodhana looked distinctly male with wide chests, big jaws and large biceps, while Krishna and Rama were more feminine in build. All his female characters (including the Hindu goddesses) had doe-like eyes, voluptuous bodies, long hair and sharp noses.
Bapu is also credited with introducing a new style of cursive writing in Telugu. This font is his own handwriting, and reflects the same simplicity as his art.
Apart from being awarded the Padmasri, Bapu also won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Institute of Cartoonists in 2001, the President of India's Rashtrapati Award from the Academy of Fine Arts, Tirupati, and several National film awards and Nandi awards. (INN)