Y.Kothapalli

The families with sir names as Chinta, Lingireddy, Bommireddy, and Gurijala were inhabitants of Pottipadu village 350 years back. The new village Kothapalli was founded by Chinta Yeddula reddy of Pottipadu village, a middle class farmer. He saw the land around what is now the village and was impressed by the rich Ness of soil. He visualized farmers will have comfortable life if he founded a village there.

Our areas in Rayalaseema are prone to scant rain fall. He thought the rich black cotton soil in this area can take care of the crops with less rain fall. As he got more and more convinced about the land, he shared the idea of founding a village there with his wife. She gave full support to him. A village can only be found if drinking water source is located. Yeddula reddy and his wife started digging the well. Months pass by and digging goes on, the couple can not find moisture. Unabated they keep on digging day and night. After several months they started getting disillusioned. They did not want to loose hope of founding a village in the middle of such beautiful land. They persuaded each other and went on for months. God knows humans value and cherish when they get some thing after lot of hard work. God knew even the new village people will forget Chinta Yeddula reddy if the village is found easily. That is why God prolonged the agony of that wonderful couple. Frustrated and disappointed couple prayed God to help them to find water and slept the night in the well. Yeddula reddy wife saw Goddess who said to her by next day morning they will find water. The couple went on digging and water came up sprouting. Yeddula reddy and his wife saw a village coming up. Since it is new village they named it Kothapalli. They motivated rich farmers of Pottipadu to move to the new village. Rich farmers like Chinta Kondareddy, Chinta Govinda reddy and others migrated to the village. Soon they found with scant rain the crops are coming up well. The village farmers became rich.

Around 1900, inspired by Kokkanti Subbareddy, many farmer families wanted to send their children to UK for studies. In one year around 1925 five people went to UK for studies where as from the rest of Rayalaseema another five have gone to UK for studies. That was the time the village became famous in Rayalaseema. It was possible because the land made farmers rich and they were able to finance their children's study in UK. Chinta Yeddula reddy visualized that. As more and more villagers got educated they got jobs in towns and cities and lot of migration took place. Many from our Village studies agricultural B. SC and higher studies and worked in agricultural depth to become Directors. They told in 1970s that our Village land is rare to find and unique in that even twenty to thirty feet down the land texture remains same as top soil. Yeddula reddy saw this with his bare eyes and with out any education in the years of 1700.Shall not we the village folks salute Chinta Yeddula reddy. To our dismay, the village people have forgotten him. About twenty years back the great well of Yeddula reddy was filled with soil to give room for the tractors to be parked there.

Y.S.Rajasekara reddy advised to keep the well as monument but the villagers did not heed. Now with the crop of Chana dal the old prosperity has come back to the village and people of the village do not have time to think about Chinta Yeddula Reddy and his wife. The purpose of writing this history of my great village is to arouse interest in the village people to make the area of URABAVI Chinta Yeddula reddy Park for women and children.

- Dr. G s reddy rtd principal

Bommireddy Brothers.

Two illustrious brothers of our Village Y. Kothapalli, B. N. Reddy and B. Nagi Reddy dominated telugu cinema in its formative years and gave telugu people wholesome and value based entertainment. Their movies have become part of telugu culture remain to influence the minds of telugu people for generations. Indian Government appreciated their contribution to Indian cinema and gave each of them the prestegeous PHALKE award. I wonder how many brothers in the world of Indian cinema got PHALKE awards. We the village people so proud of Bommireddy Brothers, we introduce our selves to other Indians in Indian cities and abroad as we belong to the same village as B. N. Reddy and B. Nagi Reddy.

B. N. Reddy and B. Nagi Reddy father, Bommireddy Narasimhareddy became business man while he was in the village and became rich by exporting onions to other countries. Narasimhareddy moved with family to Madras and purchased lot of properties in Madras.

B. N. Reddy was born in the village around 1909. He went to college in Madras and studied Financial auditing course. But his mind was on the entertainment media. He was attracted to stage as he became close to Bellari Raghava who was well known drama artist in those days. In 1940s cinema was coming up to revolutionize entertainment business. B. N. Reddy along with Mulanarayanaswamy of Tadipatri established Vauhini studios and productions to produce telugu cinemas.

B. N. Reddy and K. V. Reddy alternatively directed Vauhini movies. Vauhini pictures produced great movies: Vandematharam, Swargaseema, Malleswari, Bangarupapa, Bhaktapur Pohang, Yogi Vemana, Peddamanushulu.

B. N. Reddy was not a typical business man. He was human being who wanted to use cinema to show the real issues in life and through them persuade what is right. B. N. Reddy avoided tantalizations of romance, richness and grandeur which are used in cinema to capture the imaginations of cinema viewers and take them to a world of fantasy far away from the realities of life.

Love and liking across family members, relatives and friends give innumerous social contracts, obligations and expectations. They induce vivid feelings and going through them is the essence of life. This is independent of wealth of a person. For B. N. Reddy these human feelings are fixations in life as every body encounters them. Not only we share and enjoy the happiness of the characters we see in the movies, we share, enjoy and admire the sorrow and the struggle the characters go through in meeting the expectations of their loved ones. As human feelings constitute life for B. N. Reddy, he shows vividly the feelings of his characters in his movies. I have not seen any director excepting Satyajit Ray in Patherpanchali so much concentrating to show the viewers the depth of feelings of the characters at their challenging times.

When I moved to Madras in 1980s, B. N. Reddy was no more. I used to meet Mrs. B. N. Reddy. She used to tell me that B. N. Reddy never looked at female actors in his movies beyond the roles they played. I could see pride in her eyes as she meant such behavior is rare in the world of cinema. We in the village are proud of B. N. Reddy not only for the enrichment of telugu cinema but also for his great qualities and inspiring values.

- Dr. G s reddy rtd principal