He started his film career as a child artiste at the age of six, under Rajarajeswari Naatya Mandali's baton playing the roles of mythological characters such as "Narada" and "Savitri".
[10] He was well known in Kakinada theatre circle, with plays like Black Market, Vasanta Sena and Veedhi Gaayakulu, with which he still continued after entering the film industry and was affectionately given a nickname "Abbayi Garu".
The play Street Singers written by him was admired, and his wife Anjali Devi received a gold medal and a citation from Sir Arthur Hope, then governor of the Madras Presidency in 1943.
[11] He fine-tuned his skills to become a well known artiste while working under the 'Burmah Shell Amateurs Troupe', through the famous 'Young Mens Happy Club', which produced stalwarts from the Telugu film industry like Relangi, S. V. Ranga Rao, Gandikota Jagannatham and Anjali Devi.
[citation needed] He got a break with the film Gollabhama (1947) directed by C. Pullaiah, in which his wife Anjali Devi made her debut.
His authenticity, profound knowledge in conducting music for interludes & back ground score with numerous instruments based on pure Hindustani classical music ragas fetched him status of distinctive musician who achieved the feat of using most instruments in Telugu film Industry.
He produced some of the blockbusters in the film industry like Paradesi in 1952 in Telugu, which was directed by L. V. Prasad, Poongottai in Tamil, Anarkali in 1955, Suvarna Sundari in 1957 and Bhakta Tukaram in 1973.