Legendary Telugu lyricist Dr. Veturi Sundararama Murthy, popularly known as Veturi, succumbed to a heart attack on Saturday night at Care Hospital. He was 74, and was admitted into hospital a few days back and kept in the ICU.
Veturi was born on 29 January 1936 in Peda Kallepalli in Krishna District. He was initially a journalist for Andhra Patrika and Andhra Prabha, among other magazines. While a journalist, he started writing songs for films. He won the National Film Award for "Raalipoye puvva neeku ragaalenduke" from Maatrudevobhava in 1994. However, he returned the award since Telugu as a language was not given classical status then.
Among Veturi's awards include 8 Nandis. He composed songs for several of K Viswanath's movies, some of which are Sagara Sangamam, Subhalekha and Siri Siri Muvva. Some other movies that he has penned lyrics for are Geetanjali, Killer, Bombay and Amrutha. He also wrote a book called "Sirikaakolanu Chinnadi".