Biography
Pasupuleti Kannamba is the first generation heroine who gained huge popularity.

Kannamba was born in 1912 at Eluru. She entered the stage through Novel Stage Show Academy at a very young age of 13. On stage she performed many characters such as Sati savitri, Anasuya, Chandramati. Also her gramophone record - krishnam bhaje radha - became a big hit and created records in the sales.

Kannamba was introduced to the cine field in 1935 with the film Harischandra directed by Sri P.Pullayya. She acted in more than 150 films in Telugu and Tamil. She won accolades and praises for her roles in Draupadi Vastrapaharanam, Kanakadhara, Saranagadhara, Grihalakshmi, Chandika etc. Kannamba did the title role of Kannagi in Tamil with unparalleled ease and gained so much popularity. She is also popular for her role in Palnati Yuddam as Nayakuralu Nagamma. Govindarajula Subbarao acted as Brahmanaidu in that movie.

Kannamba married director and producer Kadaru Nagabhushanam in the year 1941. They established a production banner titled Raja Rajeswari Films and produced about 30 films in Tamil and Telugu. Productions in Telugu included Sumati, Padhuka Pattabhishekam, Saudamani, Peda Raitu, Lakshmi, Sri Krishna Tulabharam, Sati Sakkubhai, Sati Anasuya. Following the movie Rajamakutam, in which she acted as the queen and mother of NTR, she became the unparalleled queen mother of Telugu film industry. She did the same role in Tamil also queen mother in a movie titled Manohara with Sivaji Ganeshan in the lead.

As an artist, it will not be an exaggeration to say that she set the standards for the actress. It was widely known in those days that Kannamba could deliver dialogues of pages-together in a single take and at the same time express navarasalu. Her negatively shaded Mother-in-law character in Sakkubhai, and generous, kindhearted character as Jodhbahi in Anarkali, are few examples to quote of this great actress. Kannamba acted as wife of S.V.Rangarao in the film Todikodallu and also acted as his mother in the film Mangalyabalam and achieved acceptance.

Kannamba has gained the affection and love of the audience of both Telugu and Tamil fields with her great action, meaningful expressions, great resonating voice and good dialogue delivery. She also helped out lot of people who came to Madras with the ambition of making it big in the film industry. Kannamba passed away in 1964 leaving her memories behind.