Meet India’s first actress to charge over Rs 1 crore, highest paid actress ever, ran away from home to get married

Born on September 7, 1925, Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, was an actress, singer, director, producer and composer. She is regarded as India’s highest paid actress ever and is remembered as the first female super star of Telugu cinema. According to reports, when the price of 10 gram gold in India was Rs 90 at that time Bhanumathi used to charge Rs 25000 per film, which would be around Rs 2 crore in present time, adjusted according to inflation. In her 60-year-long career, Bhanumathi worked in 97 Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films.

Bhanumathi was also the first female director of Telugu cinema and her debut film as a director was Chandirani which released in 1953. Bhanumathi was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2001 for her contribution to the Indian cinema.

Bhanumathi was born in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh and was the third child of her parents. Bhanumathi's parents were proficient in music, so they started teaching music to her at a very early age. Born in a middle class family, Bhanumathi used to watch her father performing on stage since childhood. In 1939, when Bhanumathi was just 13 she got the offer of her first film Vara Vikrayam. She made her debut in Telugu cinema with Vara Vikrayam. In this film, Bhanumathi played the role of Kalindi, a 13-year-old girl who is forcibly married to an elderly man, after which she commits suicide. After this Bhanumathi appeared in films like Malathi Madhavam, Dharma Patni and Bhaktimala, but her most successful film was Krishna Prem.

In 1951, Bhanumathi was at the peak of career after the release of her musical superhit film Malleshwari. In this film, she worked with NT Rama Rao. This film is considered an all-time cult classic of South cinema. In Hindi films, she worked with legendary Dilip Kumar. In 1962, Bhanumathi's Tamil film Anne was released and she received the National Award for this film. Apart from this, she was also awarded the National Award for Antasthulu in 1964 and Palnati Yuddham in 1966.

In 1943, Bhanumathi met Ramakrishna Rao who was working as an assistant director for film Krishna Prema. She proposed to Ramakrishna Rao and the two got married August 8, 1943. Bhanumathi’s father was against the marriage and that’s why she ran away from home to marry Rao. Bhanumathi decided to quit acting after marriage but she returned to acting after few months and gave many superhit films after marriage too. Bhanumathi died on December 24, 2005.