(Â 1915Â )
Born to Mangamma and Venkateswarlu, Subrahmanya Sastry had initial training in dance from his grandfather, Mahankali chalapati, who moulded him perfectly in the characters of Lohitasya, Prahlada, Lava and Kusa; received advanced training in the female roles from Yeleswarapu satyanarayana, Musti Chidambara deekshtulu, Chinta Krishna murthy and Srirama Murthy.
Essentially a character role player and female impersonator, his characters of Sita, Usha, Mohini, Chandramati, Subhadra brought him all round recognition; associated with Mahankali vari melam, Vedantam vari melam and Vedantam Natyamandali of Kuchipudi village; honoured by Veda sabha (Sarvepalli) and at Angaluru (1937); travelled and performed extensively.
He worked as a teacher in Siddhendra Kalakshetra at Kuchipudi for some time; Bokka Krishna Murthy is one of his notable disciples; known for his simple and principled life, Subrahmanya Sastry is one of the oldest surviving gurus of Kuchipudi.
