He joined the Telugu film industry in the late 1940s in Madras and played a variety of character roles in a career lasting for about 35 years.

He died in 1982 (in Bobbili Puli movie titles, we can see "Swargeeya Mukkamala").

Facilitations performed by Kalarajyam, Hyderabad and Mukkammala was crowned as "Natabrahma" which means a creator of acting.

[citation needed] He was survived by four children: a son and three daughters.

His eldest son is Subba Rao, eldest daughter Sita Rajya Lakshmi (an additional district judge at Nellore), second daughter Padmavathi (residing at Guntur), youngest daughter Seshamma (practising High Court advocate in Chennai).