Year to Year The Journey Of Ramoji Rao

Today, one of India’s biggest industrialists and media barons left his earthly abode. Cherukuri Ramoji Rao was born on November 16, 1936 to Cherukuri Venkata Subbarao and Venkata Subbamma in the village of Pedaparupudi, Krishna District. He hailed from a middle-class agrarian family. He has two elder sisters named Rajyalakshmi and Ranganayakamma. Through the course of five decades, Ramoji Rao changed the landscape of media, entertainment and politics with Eenadu and the Ramoji Film City. He has also been the force behind multiple businesses ranging from chit funds to the hospitality industry. Here are some key highlights describing his illustrious legacy.

— In 1947, he joined the Gudivada Municipal High School in eighth grade and studied there until 1951

— He completed his Intermediate and graduate education (BSc) at Gudivada College. He subsequently joined an ad agency in Delhi as an artist.

— On August 19, 1961, he married Tatineni Ramadevi

— In 1962, he moved to Hyderabad

— On October 1962, he founded the Margadarsi Chit Fund

— In 1965, he started Kiran Ads

— From 1967 to 1969, he was involved with Vasundhara Fertilizers in Khammam

— In 1969, he started the magazine Annadata

— In 1970, he founded Images Outdoor Advertising Agency

— In 1972-1973, he started constructing the Dolphin Hotel in Visakhapatnam

— On June 21, 1980, Dolphin was inaugurated as a three-star hotel

— On August 10, 1974, the daily newspaper ‘Eenadu’ was launched in Visakhapatnam

— On August 12, 1974, Margadarsi Marketing Private Limited was launched

— On December 17, 1975, the Hyderabad edition of ‘Eenadu’ was launched

— On October 3, 1976, he started the ‘Sitara’ magazine that focused on cinema journalism

— In February 1978, he launched the monthly magazines ‘Chatura’ and ‘Vipula’

— On February 9, 1980, ‘Priya Foods’ was launched

— On March 2, 1983, he established a film production banner by the name of ‘Ushakiran Movies’.

— In 1990, he started the ‘Eenadu School of Journalism’

— In 1992-1993, he waged a war against moonshine (Sara) until prohibition orders were issued

— In 1996, he established ‘Ramoji Film City’, the world’s largest film city

— On January 27, 2002, six regional channels were launched under ‘ETV’

— On June 20, 2002, ‘Ramadevi Public School’ was inaugurated

— On April 14, 2008, he took the first step towards the Information Act

— On December 25, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi nominated Ramoji Rao as a partner for his administration’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign

— On November 14, 2015, four more ETV channels were launched

The nation mourns today for the peaceful departure of Ramoji Rao’s holy soul. Om Shanti.