Education and teaching career

Nandini Sidda Reddy was born in 1955 in Bandaram village, Medak district, Telangana, India. His father, Narra Balasiddhareddy, was a communist who fought against the Razakars.^[1] After completing his MA at Osmania University, Hyderabad, he did his MPhil degree on "The Sun in Modern Telugu Poetry" (1981) and then graduated with his Ph.D. on "Modern Poetry – Reality – Surrealism" in 1986.^[2] After teaching in Medak from 1984 to 1991, he worked as a Telugu lecturer in Siddipet Government Degree College and retired in 2012.^[2]

Author and poet

Nandini Sidda Reddy began to write stories and poetry in his student days. Later he ran an organization called the Navasahiti and Medak Study Circle and a small magazine called Rose.^[2] He founded the Manjeera Writers' Association and organized several literary events, edited the Manjeera bulletin and published seven collections of poetry. He edited a magazine called Soi. In 2001, he was the founding president of the Telangana Writers' Forum.^[2]

Telangana in India

In August 1997, written in just one hour, Siddhareddy's poem on the need for a special Telangana movement became known as "Nageti salalo na Telangana". In this poem, Sidhareddy describes the whole culture of Telangana. The same poem was used as a song in the movie Poru Telangana.^[3] The song also received a Nandi Award. Sidhareddy wrote the poem on Telangana long before Ande Sri's Jaya Jaya He Telangana and Goreti Venkanna's Ganama Telanganama. There are ten verses in this poem, which is sung all over Telangana as a Bathukamma song.

Nandini Sidda Reddy appeared in the 2011 Telugu historical drama film Jai Bolo Telangana,^[4] which featured his song Oka Puvvu Oka Navvu rendered by Sri Krishna, Adarshini. In 2016 he was chosen for the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University’s annual Vishista Puraskaram award. This was the first time the award had gone to someone outside Hyderabad. It recognized Reddy's role in the separate Telangana movement.^[5]

Telangana official roles

In 2014 Nandini Sidha Reddy was a member of a committee to review Telugu language textbooks. A key issue was whether they should be in the spoken Telangana dialect or the traditional "Sanskritised" Telugu.^[6] In 2015 he was appointed to a Telangana state government committee on the syllabus for recruitment exams. The old syllabus drafted by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission in the united Andhra Pradesh would be replaced by a "Telangana-centric new syllabus".^[7]

Nandini Sidda Reddy was appointed as the first Chairman of the Telangana Sahitya Akademi formed on 2 May 2017.^[2][8] The academy was established to ensure regular research, analysis, publishing and propagation of the Telugu language.^[9] In August 2017 he headed a panel to select an eminent personality eligible for Kaloji Narayana Rao award.^[10] His academy was in charge of the World Telugu Conference held in Hyderabad from 15 to 19 December 2017.^[9] As of 2020 he was still Chairman of Telangana Cultural Academy.^[11]