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Gutta Bapineedu Chowdary (born September 22, 1936), also known as Vijaya Bapineedu, is a Magazine Editor turned Indian film Screenwriter and Director, known for his works predominantly in Telugu Cinema. He has directed several block buster action films such as Maga Maharaju, Khaidi No.786, Gang Leader, and Magadheerudu.
Prior to film making he served as an editor for an entertainment magazine Vijaya. Bapineedu was always interested in writing and he wrote several detective stories while working in the P.H.D. After his marriage, he added his wifes name to his and wrote some more stories with the new name. He thought he would make more money if he publishes his stories rather than selling the rights to someone else. With this idea in mind, he shifted his family to Madras. Bapineedu met several writers and publishers and all of them discouraged him for venturing into publishing business. But Bapineedu went ahead and completed his backward integration plan by starting two monthlies called Bommarillu and Vijaya. While the business was gaining traction, Bapineedu also got another major break when Phalguna Arts made a film called ‘Jagath Jatteelu’ (Sobhan Babu, S.V.R. and others) based on one of his novels. Bapineedu also provided the story for ‘HanthakuluDevanthakulu’ (Superstar Krishna and others) and few other films.
Bapineedu got the rights of a Tamil film called Mangigaral Oru Maadhu, which was directed by Dasari Narayana Rao. He wanted to dub this film into Telugu on his Syam Prasad Arts and tried registering a title called Chedina Aaadadhi with the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce. But the body refused to register it and Bapineedu also had to incur the wrath of Mr. P.Pullaiah, its Chairman then. Bapineedu named this film as ‘Yavvanam Kaateesindhi’. Bapineedu produced some more films like ‘Rambha Urvasi Menaka’, ‘Bommarillu’, ‘BottuKaatuka’, ‘Prema Poojari’, ‘Vijaya’, ‘Rudra Thandavam’
Bapineedu introduced Raja Chandra, Durga Nageswara Rao, G.Rama Mohan Rao, Mouli, Vallabhaneeni Janaradhan as Directors. He also introduced cameramen M.V.Raghu, Maheedhar, Sreenivasa Reddy, Babu and Prasad,lyric writer Bhuvanachandra and dialogue writer Kaasi Viswanath.
Bapineedu also jointly produced a film called ‘Jeegantalu’ with K.Muraari on Jyothi Chithra. This is when Bapineedu got in touch with Chiranjeevi, with whom he worked the most. In fact, Bapineedu is the only other producer till date to produce six films ‘Maga Mahaaraaju’, ‘Patnam Vacchina Pathivrathalu’, ‘Mahanagaramloo Mayagaadu’, ‘Magadheerudu’, ‘Khaidhi No 786’, and ‘Gang Leader’ with Chiranjeevi in the Lead. Their friendship was at its peak between 1990 and 1995. Bapineedu spared no effort to make the 100 days celebrations of Gang Leader as the film event of the decade. Bapineedu was also the editor-in-chief of the fan-mag Megastar Chiranjeevi. For a while, it looked like nothing could go wrong between them. This is when ‘Big Boss’ happened. The disastrous film not only forced Chiranjeevi to re-position himself but also saw the end of a fruitful relationship. Bapineedu never produced a film after this.
