Suryakantham (Telugu) and C. T. Rajakantham (Tamil) as Hidimbi Ramana Reddy (Telugu) and V. M. Ezhumalai (Tamil) as Chinnamaya Chadalavada as Lambu Nalla Ramamurthy as Jambu Allu Ramalingaiah as Sarma Vangara as Sastry Madhavapeddi Satyam as Daaruka Valluri Balakrishna as Sarathi (Telugu) Kanchi Narasimha Rao as an old man (Krishna in disguise) Boddapati as Sankuteerthulu Baby Saraswati as young Sasirekha (Telugu)/Vatsala (Tamil) Master Anand as young Abhimanyu Rajani as Bhanumati Master Babji as young Krishna in a play Kakinada Rajaratnam as Yashoda in a play Guru Gopinath as Bhasmasura in Mohini Bhasmasura dance drama Mukku Raju as Vishnu in Mohini Bhasmasura dance drama Production Development After the success of Pathala Bhairavi (1951), the production company, Vijaya Productions, selected the film's technical crew for an adaptation of Sasirekha Parinayam (1936), also known as Mayabazar. The eighth adaptation of the folk tale Sasirekha Parinayam, it was the studio's first mythological film. K. V. Reddy wrote and directed Mayabazar, assisted by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, and it was produced by Nagi Reddi and Chakrapani of Vijaya Productions. Nearly a year was spent on pre-production and casting. Pingali Nagendrarao assisted with the story, script, and lyrics. Ghantasala composed the film's score, and Marcus Bartley was the cinematographer. Mayabazar was edited by C. P. Jambulingam and G. Kalyanasundaram; Madhavapeddi Gokhale and Kaladhar were the film's art directors. Casting The film was produced in Telugu and Tamil versions, with a slightly different cast for each. Gemini Ganesan appeared as Abhimanyu in the Tamil version, which was portrayed by Akkineni Nageswara Rao in Telugu. Savitri was retained as the female lead in Tamil also, where her character was named Vatsala instead of Sasirekha. Sachu played the younger version of the character in Tamil. N. T. Rama Rao, hesitant to play Krishna after a negative response to his cameo appearance in Sonta Ooru (1956), agreed at K. V. Reddy's insistence and special care was taken with his costume and body language; Mayabazar was the first of Rama Rao's many appearances as Krishna. According to Rama Rao's widow Lakshmi Parvathi, Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani had initially rejected K. V. Reddy's proposal to cast Rama Rao as Krishna, but he persuaded them into believing that Rama Rao was good for the role. As Rama Rao had a broad chest, K. V. Reddy suggested a slight narrowing to look apt as Krishna. In addition to following other suggestions by K. V. Reddy,