[2][4][5] Brought up in Chittoor, Nagayya was closely connected to Rama Vilasa Sabha, a Telugu theatre association in the city.

He worked in several films of Vauhini Pictures such as Vande Mataram (1939), Sumangali (1940), Devata (1941), Swarga Seema (1945), and Beedhalapatlu (1947).

[9] Nagayya also starred in about one hundred and sixty films in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi.

[10] Nagayya was born on 28 March 1904 in a Telugu family in a tiny hamlet near Repalle, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh.

Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru influenced him and he participated in the freedom struggle (Dandi Satyagraha) in 1930, later going on to work for some gramophone companies including Hutchins as well as attending the Gowhati Congress conclave with S. Srinivasa Iyyengar.