Skip to main content

K. Damodharasamy Naidu Doyen of Tamilnadu hospitality industry


K. Damodharasamy Naidu (1926 - 21 November 2006) was freedom fighter and founder and chairman of the Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowrishankar Group born in Peedampalli village near Coimbatore.

The Annapoorna chain was started in the early 1960s by K. Dhamodarasamy Naidu as a catering unit in Kennedy movie theater in R. S. Puram, Coimbatore. Later a coffee house was set up and run by Naidu and his three brothers K. Rangaswamy Naidu, K. Ramaswamy Naidu and K. Lakshmanan. It offered coffee, tea and tiffin items. In 1968, they opened a vegetarian restaurant under the name "Sree Annapoorna". The business grew as more restaurants were opened in many locations in Coimbatore. In 1980, a lodging hotel was opened. Currently the Annapoorna group has more than 16 restaurants in Coimbatore and in other cities of Tamil Nadu. It also operates other businesses like kitchen equipment manufacturing, construction, instant food mix production and bottling beverages.

He entered the food business with a canteen that sold keerai vadai at the Central theatre (it is said that people visited the theatre just to eat the vadai) and moved on to a shack in R. S. Puram, where he served idlis with chutney, sambar and ghee. Joining him were his brothers and head cook Achuthan Pillai, whose eyes still well up when he thinks of his late boss, who made the sambar-vada almosticonic. Till he was 70, Dhamodarasamy used to cycle to the R S Puram branch at 4 a.m. Then, he would drive down to the hotel in his favorite black ambassador, MDA 4678. A habit he followed until two days before his death. The founder of Annapoorna believed in equality. When travelling, his assitant would stay in the same room, share his meals and handle money for him. The habit of feeding others got into him early. And, he stuck to it even when the world around him changed. Even now, five beggars are fed at the Rathna Vinayagar temple before the lunch counter opens. On tours, he would pack an extra meal to hand over to a hungry person. Competitors recall how he used to work for the uplift of the industry; he thought nothing of visiting other hotels and suggesting changes for better profits. Native wisdom and thirst for knowledge saw him through life despite the lack of a structured education.

English was an alien subject. So, he hired two people to read books in English and tell him the gist. And, at age 80, he took Sanskrit tuitions to be able to understand the epics better. A proponent of Siddha medicine, he planted herbs in his Vedapatti farm and gave away bottles of medicine to whoever wanted them. For employees, he was an accessible boss who attended all their weddings. Dhamodarasamy never wore a watch, but he'd be on time for every function.  On the technical side, he studied foreign technology and reworked it to suit Indian conditions. He redesigned a German potato peeler, came up with a large-scale idli cooker and introduced steam cooking in his hotels.

Currently the Annapoorna group has more than 16 restaurants in Coimbatore and in other cities of Tamil Nadu. It also operates other businesses like kitchen equipment manufacturing, construction, instant food mix production and bottling beverages

Currently Annapoorna Group of Hotels has 3,000 employees.

Damodharasamy Naidu had taken part in the Quit India movement.

He was president of the Tamil Nadu Hotels Association and headed the Coimbatore District Hotels Association for nearly 35 years.

He was executive committee member of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, representing the Coimbatore District Hotels Association.

The Avinashilingam University had conferred a doctorate on him.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kamma Movie Directors

List of Kamma Movie Ditrectors 1) Gudavalli Ramabrahmam 2) Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad (LV Prasad) 3) Kovelamudi Bapayya 4) Veeramachineni Madhusudhana Rao 5) Kovelamudi S.Prakasa Rao 6) Kolli Pratyagatma 7) G.Sambasiva Rao 8) Tammareddy Krishnamurthy 9) Mannava Balayya 10) Tatineni Prakasa Rao 11) Tatineni Rama Rao 12) Tatineni Prasad 13) Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao 14) Gutta Ramineedu 15) Kolli Hemambaradhara Rao  16) Uppalapati Visveswara Rao 17) Tripuraneni Maharadhi 18) Tripuraneni Gopichand 19) Tottempudi Krishna 20) Madala Ranga Rao 21) Siva Nageswara Rao 22) Uppalapati Narayana Rao 23) P.Sarat 24) A.Mohan Gandhi 25) Bezawada Gopal 26) T.Kranthi Kumar 27) Maganti Vijaya Bapineedu 28) Tammareddy Bharadwaj 29) Akkineni Kutumba Rao 30) K.Vasu 31) Edara VV Satyanarayana 32) Muppalaneni Siva 33) Yalamanchili VS Chowdary 34) Theja Jasti 35) Sreenu Vytla 36) Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli 37) Vemulapalli Srikanth 38) AS Ravikumar Chowdary 39) Kod

List of 30 Kamma Billionaires and rankings

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021 shows that India has more than 1,000 individuals who have a net worth of  ₹ 1,000 crore or more across 119 cities. The cumulative wealth in the country has gone up by 51 per cent, while the average wealth has also increased by 25 per cent, the report by Hurun India said. 30 Kamma business and industrialists finds place in the list from AP, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. 14. Murali Divi Rs76,000 crores Divis Laboratories 179. Venkateswarlu Jasti 9,600 crores Suven Pharma  190. Veeraiah Chowdary Nannapaneni 9,100 crores NATCO Laboratories  209. Chava Satyanarayana 8,400 crores Laurus Labs 264. Satya Nadella 6,200 crores Microsoft 368. Mandava PrabhakaraRao 4,300 crores Nuziveedu seeds 377. Ella KrishnaMurthy 4,100 crores Bharat Biotech 384. Doppalapudi Bhaktavatsala Rao 4000 crores Privi Speciality Chemicals 398. Galla Ramachandra Naidu  3,900 crores Amara Raja Batteries  398. Chinta VisveswaraRao 3,900 crores Navayuga Engineering 409. Ma

Kamma Cine Heroes

1) N.T.Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni  11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni  37) Myneni Sarvanand 38) Daggubati Rana 39) Akkineni Naga Chaitanya 40) Nani (Ghanta Naveen Kumar) 41)

Telugu TV Channels own and run by Kammas

1) ETV - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 2) Gemini - Akkineni Manohara Prasad (Founder and stake holder) 3) MAA - (MAA - Music, MAA Movies) Nimmagadda Prasad, Akkineni Nagarjuna (Majority stake holders - Then sold to Sony) 4) TV9 - Velicheti Ravi Prakash, minority stake holder holds the grip 5) ETV2 - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 6) TV 5 - Bollineni Rajagopala Naidu 7) NTV - Tummala Narendranath chowdary 8) Studio N - Narne Srinivasa Rao, sold to SivaramPrasad Vasireddi 9) Mahaa TV - Inaganti Venkatarao now taken over by Sujana Chowdary 10) I News - Tummala Narendra and Sabbineni Surendra (sold to Kiran Kumar Reddy) 11) ABN Andhra Jyothi - Radhakrishna Vemuri 12) Bhakti - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 13) Vanitha - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 14) ATV - Anil Sunkara  15) CVR News - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 16) CVR Health - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 17) Om TV - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 18) YTV - Yalamanchili Venkateswara Rao (Aired from Vizag) 19) Express TV -  Chi

A road named after Veerasamy Naidu in Singapore

Veerasamy Road - Little India/ Singapore Veerasamy Road was renamed twice in its history; it was originally called Inche Lane, and was renamed Jalan Tambah in 1910. In 1927, the road was renamed again as Veerasamy Road, in honour of Dr N. Veerasamy Naidu (1865-1926), one of Singapore’s first Indian doctors and a leader in the local Indian community. Dr N Veerasamy Naidu was born in 1864. He was the son of Narayanasamy Naidu and Ramanuja Ammal. He learned Tamil from the age of four from his grandfather, Kuppusamy Naidu. He studied English at the Raffles School in Singapore and first worked at the lawyer’s office of Mr Cook. Unsatisfied in his job and drawn to the study of medicinal herbs, he decided to pursue an education in medical science and eventually worked in a hospital owned by Govindasamy Naidu. He set up his own clinic called Indian Dispensary in Rochor Road and derived effective scientific and traditional treatments for a variety of new diseases. He was the President

Kamma MLA and MPs (Andhra Pradesh)

Kamma MLAs in AP Assembly: 1. Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu Vizag TDP 2. Pendurthi Venkatesh Rajanagaram TDP 3. Vegulla Jogeswara Rao Mandapeta TDP 4. Burugupalli Sesha Rao Nidadavolu TDP 5. Chintamaneni Prabhakar Denduluru TDP 6. Kodali Venkateswara Rao Gudivada TDP 7. Dasari Balavardhana Rao Gannavaram TDP 8. Yalamanchili Ravi Vijayawada PRP 9. Devineni Umamaeshwara Rao Mylavaram TDP 10. Nadendla Manohar Tenali CONG 11. Dhulipala Narendra Ponnuru TDP 12. Kommalapati Sridhar Pedakurapadu TDP 13. Pattipati Pulla Rao Chilakaluripet TDP 14. Yaraparineni Srinivasa Rao Gurajala TDP 15. Gonuguntla VSR Anjaneyulu Vinukonda TDP 16. Gottipati Ravi Kumar Addanki CONG 17. Daggubati Venkateswara Rao Parchur CONG 18. Kurugundla Ramakrishna Venkatagiri TDP 19. Galla Aruna Kumari Chandragiri CONG 20. Nara Chandrababau Naidu Kuppam TDP 21. Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu Nagari TDP 22. Payyavula Kesav Uravakonda TDP 23. Paritala Sunitha Raptadu TDP 24. Konka Meenakshi

Richest man in Andhra Pradesh

It is neither Reddy nor Raju. It is only Kamma .. According to the Forbes magazine, Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao ( 41 ) is the richest person in Andhra Prades h stands at No- 33 among the richest persons in India . Also he is the youngest in the list, there is no Andhrite in the list. Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao is the Chairman - Lanco Infratech Ltd , the Hyderabad-based diversified group. His net worth is 1.9 billion dollars., ahead of Vijay Mallya, N.R. Narayana Murthy. Divi Murali of Divi's Lab is narrowly missed the berth in the list. Murali, best of luck next year..

Kamma Business/Industry - AP (Media & Entertainment)

News papers 1) Eenadu - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 2) Andhra Jyothi - Vemuri Radha Krishna Television 1) ETV - Cherukuri Ramoji Ravo 2) Gemini - Akkineni Manohara Prasad (Founder and stake holder) 3) MAA - (MAA - Music, MAA Music) Nimmagadda Prasad, Akkineni Nagarjuna (Majority stake holders) 4) TV9 - Velicheti Ravi Prakash 5) ETV2 - Cherukuri Ramoji Rao 6) ABN - Vemuri RadhaKrishna 7) TV 5 - Bollineni Rajagopala Naidu 8) NTV - Tummala Narendranath chowdary 8) Studio N - Jr.NTR 9) Mahaa TV - Inaganti Venkatarao 10) I News - Tummala Narendra, Sabbineni Surendra 11) ATV - Anil Sunkara 12) Bhakti - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 13) Vanitha - Tummala Narendranath Chowdary 14) Channel 4 - NT Chowdary (Nageli Thirupalappa Chowdary) 15) CVR News - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 16) CVR Health - Chalasani Venkateswara Rao 17) TV6 - Nara Lokesh

List of Kamma Cine Heroes (Updated)

List of Kamma Movie stars: 1) Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni (Mutyalamuggu fame) 11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni 37) Myneni Sarvanand  38) Daggubati Rana 39

MR Doreswamy Naidu nominated to the Karnataka Legislative Council

MR Doreswamy Naidu nominated to the Karnataka Legislative Council on Monday took oath of office. M R Doreswamy Naidu (Native of Chittor District) is a known name in the field of education. He is founder chairperson of PES Education Institutions. He runs a chain of institutions including 30 colleges.“Undoubtedly my contribution to the field of education has been recognised. For the last three-and-a-half decades I am in education field. Though I am not associated with the BJP, I have RSS background. My association with Yeddyurappa and other leaders is 35 year old" he said.