Celebrated PRO, senior film publisher and producer BA Raju on Friday night breathed his last. He died due to cardiac arrest at Hyderabad's Care Hospital while undergoing treatment. Aged 61, he was survived by sons Arun Kumar and Shiva Kumar. His wife B Jaya was a filmmaker, columnist and writer and she had passed away two years ago.
BA Raju began his career looking after the publicity works for Superstar Krishna. This experience laid the foundation for his PR career.
A lot of youngsters became film journalists with his encouragement. After working as a journalist for Andhra Jyothi, Jyothi Chitra, Udayam, Shiva Ranjani and other publications, he started Super Hit film magazine with his wife Jaya as a founder-editor in 1994. He worked as a personal PRO for a lot of producers, directors, actors and heroines, besides talented technicians.
With his wife as the director, Raju produced movies like 'Pavani Kalyan', 'Chantigadu', 'Premikulu', 'Gundamma Manavadu', 'Sawal', 'Lovely' and 'Vaisakham'. Both his sons are in the film industry. Arun Kumar is a VFX technician for Hollywood movies. Shiva Kumar has worked under the likes of Puri Jagannadh, VV Vinayak and Maruthi and is now directing a film.
In about 25 years, Raju was a PRO for more than 1500 movies. He held personal association with Mahesh Babu, Nagarjuna, Prabhas and others. Besides, he was a valuable resource for the likes of Chiranjeevi and several big production houses such as Suresh Productions.
Ragalahari is saddened by the demise of the legendary PRO. May his soul rest in peace!
