page_title: Tenali
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Tenali / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Satyanarayana UDA lake park at Chinnaravuru area of Tenali
context_page_description: Tenali is a city in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the headquarters of Tenali mandal and Tenali revenue division. The city is renowned for art, cultural, drama and hence, it is often referred with the nickname as Andhra Paris. It is one of the twelve urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and the twelfth most populous city in the state, with a population of 199,345 as of 2011. Tenali City is also part of Andhrapradesh Capital Region.
  Tenali Ramakrishna, one of the eight poets and jester of Maharaja Krishnadevaraya, hails from Tenali.
context_section_description: The city is notable for drama, fine arts, literature and poetry. The iconic Martyr's Memorial at Ranarang Chowk denotes the impact of the city on the Indian freedom struggle during the Quit India Movement. The people of Tenali had responded to Mahatma Gandhi’s call and organised a bandh on August 12, 1942. The British police had opened fire on them, and seven people had been killed on the spot, at Morrispeta which later came to be known as Ranarang Chowk. After Independence, seven pillars had been erected in the memory of the seven martyrs, and a statue of Mother India with a baby in her arms had been installed at Ranarang Chowk.
  It was the domicile of doyen of several social and revolutionary moments viz. Non Bramin Movement 1920 (Suryadevara raghavaiah Chowdary), Rationalist movement 1940 (Kaviraju Sri Tripuraneni), Radical Humanist Movement 1950 (Sri M.N. Roy) etc.
  Drama and literature
  The city has been the host for events such as the formation of the 1929 Andhra Nataka Kala Parishad, the Kanyasulkam play, and cultural fests. Tenali Ramakrishna, one of the eight poets in the court of Sri Krishna Devaraya, hails from Tenali. In the area of modern literature are contributors such as Chakrapani, Gudipati Venkata Chalam, Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao, Tripuraneni Ramaswamy. Furthermore, Nethi Parameswara Sarma wrote the book Nurella Tenali Rangastala Charitra, which translates to 100 years of theater in Tenali.
  Films
  Many artists who hail from Tenali and the nearby villages have contributed a major share to the Telugu film industry, such as AVS, Govindarajula Subba Rao (the first Telugu cinema hero), Krishna, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao, Jamuna, Kanchanamala (the first Telugu cinema heroine), Kongara Jaggayya, Prabha, Savitri, Sharada, Siva Parvati and Divya Vani.
  Cityscape
  There are various religious worship centers in the city, such as the Vaikuntapuram Venkateswara temple and the Iglesia Ni Cristo church. The notable Satyanarayana UDA Lake Park (or Chinaravuru park), named after former municipal chairman Ravi Satyanarayana, is maintained by VGTMUDA (now APCRDA).
caption: Satyanarayana UDA lake park at Chinnaravuru, Tenali
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