January 30, 1948 - August 6, 2023
Covering his bare torso with a gongadi (woollen blanket), carrying a stick, tossing his long hair in the wind and singing the song of revolution; Gadar is a household name in the Telugu-speaking States. When he first sang ‘Aapuro rickshoda’ he had thick black hair on his head; five decades later when he sang ‘Podustuna poddu meeda nadustuna kaalama, poru Telanganama’ the hair had turned platinum white. But the spirit remained intact. The ballads he adopted, composed and sang challenged the existing social order.
Born Gummadi Vittal Rao, he had to drop his name Rao as his class teacher in Toopran village removed it saying he had no right to use the name. “I adopted the name Gadar when my song ‘Apuro rickshaoda rickshaenta nenuosta’ became popular where I modified the song ‘apuro bandoda’ in 1971,” said Gadar when he met this reporter.
