
Suddala Ashok Teja

Suddala Ashok Teja (born Gurram Ashok Teja; 4 April 1954) is an Indian poet and lyricist known for his work in Telugu cinema and Telugu literature. He has written lyrics for over 2200 songs. He won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song "Nenu saitam" from "Tagore" (2004).
Early life.
Suddala Ashok Teja was born in Suddala village of Jangaon district, Telangana to Telugu poet Suddala Hanmanthu and his wife Janakamma. Both his parents took part in the Telangana Rebellion, fighting against the Nizam of Hyderabad. He has two brothers and a sister; Prabhakar Teja, Sudhakar Teja and Racha Bharathi.
Career.
Ashok Teja worked as a government teacher in Bandalingapur, Medipally and Metpally villages of Karimnagar district before coming into the Telugu film industry. He started writing lyrics ever since he was a child. His nephew Uttej a well known character artiste in Telugu films helped him to get a first chance in films. He became popular after penning the lyrics for the films Osey Ramulamma and Ninne Pelladutha during the years 1996–1997.
He won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics in the year 2003 for his song "Nenu Saitham" in the movie "Tagore (2003)", it is based on Sri Sri's 'Nenu Saitham' from Mahaprasthanam. He is the third writer to win this award after Sri Sri for his "Telugu veera levaraa" in Alluri Sitaramaraju and Veturi for his "Raalipoye puvva neeku ragaalenduke" in "Matrudevobhava". He wrote over 2200 songs for 1250 movies and 2500 private songs till 2017.He won SIIMA Award for Best Lyricist (Telugu) in 2018 for "Vachinde" song from "Fidaa (2017)".
Personal life.
Ashok Teja is married to Nirmala. He has two sons and a daughter. The oldest daughter, Swapna, is a house wife and has two kids, older son, Jwala Chaitanya, is a software engineer working in the US, has two kids. Younger son, Arjun Teja, recently married.