General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Lava Kusa (லவகுசா)

Lava Kusa (లవకుశ) is a 1963 Indian Telugu-language mythological film based on the Uttara Ramayana, the portion of the Ramayana that follows Sita's exile and the childhood of her twin sons Lava and Kusha. Directed by Chittajalu Pullayya and C.S.R. Rao, it starred N. T. Rama Rao as Rama and Anjali Devi as Sita, and it is remembered as the first color film in Telugu cinema and one of its most successful.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Release	29 March 1963 (Telugu); 19 April 1963 (Tamil version)²^•³
Directors	Chittajalu Pullayya and C.S.R. Rao¹
Lead cast	N. T. Rama Rao as Rama, Anjali Devi as Sita²
Technical first	The first color film in Telugu cinema²
Box office	Ran 500 days in Telugu, then a record for Indian cinema, and grossed about Rs. 10 million (Rs. 1 crore)²
Music	38 songs, padyams, and slokas in total, with lyrics by Samudrala (Senior)⁴^•⁵
Award	President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Telugu, National Film Awards 1964¹

Spoilers

Story and source

The film adapts the Uttara Ramayana, the later portion of the Ramayana tradition. After Rama's coronation, Sita is exiled and takes shelter with the sage Valmiki, where she gives birth to the twins Lava and Kusha. The story reaches its climax when the holy horse of Rama's Ashwamedha (ancient Vedic royal ritual of releasing a sacrificial horse) sacrifice reaches the twins' forest, and Lava and Kusha challenge it, a scene highlighted in the National Film Archive catalog's description of the film as the best film in Telugu.⁶

Production

Production began in 1958 and continued until the film's release in 1963, a five-year span attributed to financial difficulties.⁷^•⁸ The producer was Allareddi Shankar Reddy.² The film was shot in color, making it the first Telugu film produced in the medium, and it was released in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi.²

Cast and music

N. T. Rama Rao, already the leading mythological star of Telugu cinema, played Rama, with Anjali Devi as Sita. The supporting cast included Nagayya as Valmiki, Kantarao as Lakshmana, Satyanarayana as Bharata, Sobhan Babu as Shatrughna, and the child actors Nagababu and Subrahmanyam as Lava and Kusha.²

Music was central to the film. The soundtrack contains 38 pieces in total, combining 17 songs with padyams (verse recitations) and slokas, with lyrics by Samudrala (Senior).⁴^•⁵ Songs such as "Jaya Jaya Rama", "Ramanna Ramudu Kodandaramudu", and "Vinudu Vinudu Ramayana Gatha" remain associated with the film, which continues to be broadcast on television.⁴

Reception and records

The film was a landmark commercial success. It ran for 500 days in Telugu, breaking the record of 245 days set by Rama Rao's earlier Pathala Bhairavi, and was recorded at the time as the longest-running film in Indian cinema history. It grossed about Rs. 10 million (Rs. 1 crore), a striking figure for the early 1960s. The Tamil version ran for 40 weeks and the Hindi version for 25 weeks.² Contemporary accounts describe audiences traveling to theaters from villages by bullock cart to see it.²

At the 1964 National Film Awards, the film won the President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Telugu, credited to its directors Chittajalu Pullayya and C.S.R. Rao.¹ Telugu film histories also credit it with a Nandi Award as best film.²

Place in Telugu cinema

The 1963 film was a remake by the same director of an earlier Lava Kusa made in 1934 in black and white, which is recorded as the Telugu film industry's first major commercial success.⁹^•¹⁰ The 1963 version is regarded as a milestone of Telugu mythological cinema; film histories place it after Mayabazar as a Telugu film of great technical value, and it is frequently cited as the Ramayana film Telugu audiences think of first.⁸^•⁹ The film also made the careers of its directors: Chittajallu Pullayya and his son Chittajallu Srinivasa Rao are remembered in Telugu film history chiefly through Lava Kusa.¹¹

Actor Anaparthi Nagaraju, who played Lava in the film, died in Hyderabad in September 2020 of respiratory complications, an obituary that again described Lava Kusa as an evergreen classic.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Telugu films before 2000

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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