Chairman of Ramoji Group and ‘media mogul’ Cherukuri Ramoji Rao passed away at the age of 88 years.

Rao, who founded the largest circulated Telugu daily Eenadu and who influenced Andhra Pradesh politics for over 40 years, was ailing for some time. He was admitted to the hospital on June 5 and took his last breath early this morning. After starting his career with an ad agency in Delhi in his early twenties, he moved to Hyderabad in 1962 to start his own business. The same year he started Margadarsi Chit Fund, which now has an annual turnover of over ₹10,000-crore.

The chit fund business, which landed him in a deep legal tangle in the later part of his career, had also helped him finance a number of businesses.

Ramoji Group

Eenadu, an undisputed leader in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for over the last 50 years, started its operations from Visakhapatnam in 1974 and branched out into every single district.

Rao brought modernity -- both in terms of language and presentation, and technology -- in his journalism. Legend had it that he would read a host of foreign newspapers and all of Eenadu editions every single day to spot novel features.

He roped in some of the well-accomplished journalists and linguists, all with Left backgrounds, to introduce colloquial language as against the formal language, which was a bit inconvenient for most readers.

He focussed on local issues and things readers could easily connect to.

While pre-Independence-era Telugu newspapers such as Andhra Prabha and Andhra Patrika were losing their prominence, he focussed on expanding his reach and introduced creative marketing techniques.

Even those who criticise his type of journalism admit that his newspaper was complete in terms of coverage.

In order to bring uniformity in the presentation of news and make it more reader-friendly, he started a captive journalism school.

Each word that went into the print would be under his scrutiny; praising the good and taking those who made mistakes to task

However, critics accused him of being unscrupulous in exploiting certain ‘events’ to increase the paper’s circulation.

One of the biggest examples his critics cite is his coverage of the Skylab episode in 1979. (The failed NASA satellite created a scare across the globe with news of its likely crash and debris hitting random villages.)  

Traditionally an anti-Congress, he openly took sides with the Telugu Desam Party when it was founded in 1982 and played a key role in the landmark victory of NT Rama Rao, who decimated the Congress, and his reinstatement as Chief Minister after Nadendla Bhaskara Rao engineered a failed coup.

He subsequently expanded his media and entertainment business by making movies and setting up the Ramoji Film City on the outskirts of Hyderabad. His group started a bouquet of TV channels in multiple languages and States, and digital properties as well.

His undisputed run, however, hit a road bump in 2004 when Y S Rajashekar Reddy became the Chief Minister. Finding loopholes in his financial services business, the then Congress government filed cases, which included illegal collection of deposits. He had to sell part of his media (TV channels) business to the Reliance Industries-owned Network 18 to quickly raise funds and return the deposits.

The sell-off had adversely impacted his business for some time. Though he was out of the rough weather, the storm returned after Rajashekar Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy took over as the Chief Minister of the truncated Andhra Pradesh.

Police raided the offices of Margadarsi across the State and, for the first time, they interrogated him. This shook him completely. Even though he got bruised, he refused to succumb and launched a scathing attack on the YSRCP government. He wrote a Page-1 editorial a day before the polling, asking the people to defeat the ‘undemocratic, sadistic, and vindictive government’.

Ramoji was much more than a media baron. He advised governments had previously been Chandrababu Naidu’s chief mentor, standing by him. The party eventually split in 1995. 

Ramoji’s Ushodaya Movies made some clean films. His Priya pickles are a household. ‘Eenadu’ is one of the first things lakhs of Telugus start their day with. His TV news channels are known for their cool presentation. 

However, his close ties to the Telugu Desam Party and his use of paper to advance the party’s interests attracted harsh criticism. Though he had handed over the Eenadu business to his son Kiran, his mark on the paper continued till his last day.

Ramoji Group is also in the hospitality business. It owns many hotels in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, including the Dolphin Hotel in Visakhapatnam. The group also owns Kalanjali, a retail chain known for artifacts and handcrafted furniture.

Annadaata, which predated Eenadu, set a benchmark in agricultural magazine space in the country. He, however, decided to shut it down in 2022 after running it for more than 50 years. His tryst with English journalism also ended soon after the group wound up Newstime

In 2016, Ramji Rao was honoured with Padma Vibhushan for his work and contribution to literature, journalism and education.

Liked by some and hated by some others, Ramoji Rao left an indelible mark on Telugu journalism.