Narla Venkateswara Rao

Journalism

Rao began his journalism career as the editor of Andhra Prabha, which was owned by the Indian Express Group.^[4] He wrote a series on Suryadevara Sanjiv Dev from the Tummapudi village in the Guntur district of India.^[5]

In 1969, he played a leading role in opposing a bill introduced by Chief Minister Brahmananda Reddy which attempted to restrict freedom of the press by curbing the independence of Andhra Jyothy.^{[citation needed]}

Editorial work

Rao was profoundly disturbed when the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution were suspended by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency of 1975–1977. In protest, he proposed leaving the editorial column of Andhra Jyothy.^{[citation needed]} However, the newspaper's management overruled his proposal, citing concerns about potential government retaliation and the risk of the newspaper's closure. He later relocated to the United States to spend time with his seven children and their families. After the Emergency ended, he returned to India and resigned from his position as editor of Andhra Jyothy.

Earlier, in the late 1940s, he had attempted to resign from Andhra Prabha in solidarity with journalists protesting Ramnath Goenka's decision to disperse the newspaper’s staff to evade government pay regulations. However, Goenka persuaded him to stay. Rao criticized the Indian National Congress and its approach to politics.^{[citation needed]}

Public speaking

Narla authored a Telugu play, Seetha Josyam (the prophecy of Seetha), published by the Sahitya Akademi. The play garnered considerable attention in religious as well as literary circles. However, Narla strongly opposed the criticism of the play by the official journal of the Sahitya Akademi, contending that, as the mouthpiece of the publishers, the journal should not engage in criticism of literary works. This stance also underpinned his decision to decline the Sahitya Akademi Award,^[4] a move which created a significant impact within academic communities. Narla's monographs on Vemana, V. Veerasalingam, and Gurajada Apparao were translated into several Indian languages.^{[citation needed]}

Playwright

After resigning from his position as newspaper editor, Narla took to writing plays on serious topics, often incorporating extensive prefaces in a manner similar to George Bernard Shaw's works. One such play, Narakam lo Harischandra (Harischandra in Hell), was dedicated to his longtime friend and journalist Innaiah Narisetti. Another play, based on the mythological story of Draupadi—the shared wife of the five Pandava princes—was originally titled Panchali (wife of five persons). However, Narla was unable to complete his characteristically lengthy preface for this work.^{[citation needed]}