ANR: A Legend of Telugu Cinema
With the death of
Akkineni Nageshwar Rao, Indian Cinema has lost a stalwart who
belonged to the first generation movie stars in the country. ANR, as
Nageshwara Rao is popularly known, along with Nandamuri Tarakarama
Rao (NTR), formed the pillars of a fledgling Telugu industry in the
late 1940s. His contributions to the Telugu film industry does not
end with the 260-odd movies he has done; he set up Annapurna Studios
in 1955 and was one of the pioneers in making dance an integral part
of movie song visualizations. His labor in setting up the base of
Telugu industry in Hyderabad is well known, a move which greatly
helped the industry in terms of production and revenue earned.
Born in 1924 into a
family of farmers, ANR's entry into movies was not an easy one. His
training in acting was mainly through the stage plays he did during
his childhood. The first movie ANR acted in was Dharmapatni
when he was just 17 years old. He appeared as Rama in the 1944 movie
Seeta Rama Jananam which got him noticed. He appeared in 260-odd films in his career and was acting even at the age of 90 in
Manam, a movie which also
starred his son Nagarjuna and grandson Nag Chaithanya. He also holds
a unique distinction of starring in the highest number of movies
(127) that had a 100-day houseful run.
Over
the seven decades ANR was active in the industry, many accolades have
come his way, the major ones being the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in
1991 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011. He has also garnered numerous
awards instituted by different states as well, which is testimony to
his wider appeal.
The
star with the heartening smile will be deeply missed.
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