Telugu language novel writer late Balivada Kantha Rao. At 17, he started working as a clerk in the Indian navy and soon became a civilian officer. While working in the Navy, he had the opportunity to travel and get acquainted not only with different parts of the country but also different cultures, especially tribal communities. The knowledge he had acquired through these experiences enriched his fiction greatly.
He considers tradition to be a “withered branch and change does not happen if one hangs on to the dried up branches. No society can progress without change.”
Kantha Rao believed in checking the minutest details and being truthful to his characters. In his foreword to his anthology of short stories, Balivada Kantha Rao kathalu, he states that all his stories were based on his observation of real life events and all characters on the people he had come across in real life.
His literary works have been the subjects of doctoral thesis for many scholars. Many of his novels and stories have been translated into other Indian languages. He won several awards which include Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Akademi, Telugu University Award, Gopichand Literary award, Ravi Shastri Memorial Award and Kalasagar Vishishta Puraskaram. He was the winner of Kendriya Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 by the Government of India.
