Ghattamaneni Sivarama Krishna, who is popularly known as Superstar Krishna’s death had come as a shock to the Telugu people. He is popular in this part of the state for his films stretching five decades.

Born in Burripalem village near Tenali town of Guntur district, Krishna had been closely associated with Vijayawada for his films.

He used to visit this city on the first day of every film and watch whether it would be a success or a flop in the theatres. He did so for all his films and used to say that Vijayawada is the pulse of the film industry.

When he joined the active politics in 1984 under the leadership of late Rajiv Gandhi, he contested to the Lok Sabha from Eluru constituency on the Congress ticket in the 1989 elections. He won the seat by defeating TDP MP, Bolla Bulliramaiah. However, he lost to the TDP’s Bulliramaiah in the 1991 elections.

Since then, he had quit active politics but had been active in the film industry. He was the only actor who turned against legend NTR, both in the films and politics as well.

When NTR wanted to do the Alluri Sitarama Raju film, Krishna had done it. When NTR planned to do Dana Veera Sura Karna, Krishna had announced the Kurukshetram movie.

When NTR launched his Telugu Desam Party and became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Krishna joined the Congress and became an MP. That too, when NTR was heading the National Front, a coalition of non-Congress parties.

Thus, Krishna was a challenging and daring personality both in the films and politics too. His death had cast a shadow on the Telugu film industry for it was he produced the first cinemascope film in 1974, first eastman colour film in 1982, first 70 MM film in 1986 and the first DTS film in 1995.