Ramoji Rao’s entrepreneurial journey began in Visakhapatnam

Ramoji Rao’s entrepreneurial journey began in Visakhapatnam. After first launching an advertising agency in the City of Destiny, he forayed into the print media by kick-starting Eenadu daily from a defunct film studio, and then went on to become a hotelier by establishing the Dolphin Hotel.

Telugus residing across the globe and in the two States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana lost their legendary personality and Ramoji Group founder Cherukuri Ramoji Rao on June 8 (Saturday).

A media baron, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, Ramoji Rao, who had not been doing well in the recent past, died after a brief illness while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Hyderabad.

But many may not know that Ramoji Rao’s entrepreneurial journey had started in Visakhapatnam. It was in the City of Destiny that he had launched Eenadu, the Telugu daily, on August 10, 1974.

Ramoji Rao had taken a defunct film studio at Seethammadhara for rent to launch the first edition of Eenadu, and there was no looking back for him from then onwards. Today, the Telugu daily has several editions and branches across multiple centres and States.

The Ramoji Group has under its ambit the Eenadu group of publications, Ramoji Film City, a film studio in Hyderabad that is considered the largest in the world, Margadarsi Chit Fund, Dolphin Group of Hotels, and many other companies.

A few senior staff members fondly recall how Ramoji Rao used to crisscross the city on his Lambretta scooter to promote and distribute the newspaper. He had launched Eenadu with a print order of about 4,000 copies and sell about 3,000 of them. But his experience in the advertising industry had enabled him to keep the newspaper afloat, recollects a senior executive from the advertising industry.

Ramoji Rao began his career by floating Kiran Ads, an advertising agency, in Visakhapatnam. After the success of Eenadu, he had forayed into hotel industry and started his first establishment, Dolphin Hotel, in Visakhapatnam in the early 1980s.