**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). He was selected as a brand Ambassador of Swachh Bharat, only poet from two Telugu states.

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 daughter Swapna and sons Jwala Chaitanya and Arjun Teja.

Filmography

Awards

Books

Telugu

English

Hindi

Suddala Foundation

Suddala Ashok Teja have started an international award for social upliftment and folk literature, in memory of his father Suddala Hanumanthu from his Suddala foundation was given successfully to the Talented men and women, Dr. Teejan bai from Madyapradesh, Ngoogi of America, poet and folk singer Goreti Venkanna, a Divyangana poetess Rajeshwari of Telangana and other over a period of 10 years.