Tollywood Director Beeram Mastan Rao Dies At 69

In recent months, Telugu film industry has lost a few leading stars like Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Uday Kiran, Srihari, AVS and Dharmavarapu Subramanyam. When it is struggling to recover from the loss, the Tollywood has been thunder-struck by the shocking news about the death of filmmaker Beeram Mastan Rao, who passed away in Chennai on January 28. According to reports, Beeram Mastan Rao was suffering from some age-related illness from the last few years. The 69-year-old director, who had married late actress Naveena Lakshmi, was recently admitted to the Bharati Raja hospital in Chennai. While undergoing treatment for the disease, he breathed his last in the hospital on Monday morning.

Born on 30th October, 1944, Beeram Mastan Rao shared great bond with superstar Krishna as both hailed from same district and he was said to be one of the latter's favourite directors. The filmmaker hogged the limelight with the hit movie Burripalem Bullodu starring Krishna and actress Sridevi, who went on to become a hit pair in Telugu cinema. It also marked the return of Sridevi as a commercial actress. Beeram Mastan Rao had also directed late legendary actor NT Rama Rao in the film Prema Simhasanam starring actress Manjula in the female lead. He had directed six Telugu movies like Bhurripalem Bullodu, Prema Simhasanam, Talli Godavari, Suvarna Sundari, Gayyali Gangamma and Viplava Sankham, and most of them were big hits at the Box Office. He had also directed a few TV serials. Several Tollywood filmmakers including Tamanna Bharadhwaj attended the condolence meet held in Hyderabad and paid tributes to Beeram Mastan Rao.