History

Jaladi was born on 9 August 1932 in Gudiwada in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. He was the fourth son of Amrutamma and the late Jaladi Emmanuel, a member of the Krishna District Board and Indian freedom fighter. He passed his S.S.L.C. with Telugu as special course. He started his career as a drawing teacher in District Board Schools. He worked in various districts and learned the slang used in different areas of the State. He resigned his job during his stint at Veeraghattam in Srikakulam district in 1968 and went to Chennai to try his luck in films.

He entered the realm of films as a lyricist for the movie Palle Sema in 1976. His debut song Churattakku Jarutadhi Situkku Situkku is tuned by K V Mahadevan. He wrote several social, philosophical, patriotic and folk songs in Telugu movies. His songs consist of only Telugu words of various regions of Andhra Pradesh. Being born in a poor family, he always liked to write about poverty, village life and folk type of songs. He penned nearly 1,800 songs in more than 270 movies and remained popular for his folk-oriented songs, which had an exotic rural touch. He also wrote books like Viswamohini and Kakulamma and plays like Amarajeevi, Tandri, Samadhi and Karumeghalu. He died on 14 October 2011 in Visakhapatnam.

These are some of the popular songs penned by him for Telugu films.