Bhagya Rekha (1957)

Reddi’s hit film (one of the few films he did not produce himself) tells of the orphan Lakshmi (Jamuna) who is raised by her kindly uncle Nayarana Rao and her evil aunt Jagadamba. Narayana Rao and Jagadamba already have two children: the boy Kotaiah who runs away to join the army and the spoilt daughter Kalyani who wants to marry the manager of a cinema theatre. When Kalyani’s fiance falls in love with Lakshmi, Lakshmi leaves and finds a second home when she restores a lost child to its mother. While Lakshmi works as a tutor to a rich girl whose brother Ravi (NTR) falls in love with her, aunt Jagadamba starts spreading malicious rumours, preventing the lovers from marrying and driving Lakshmi away again. Ravi falls ill with frustration but eventually things are set right when the son Kotaiah returns home and discovers the injustice his mother inflicted on the heroine.