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 The
Living Glory of
Telugu Cinema
Dr Akkineni Nageswara Rao, ANR to the movie
lovers, is the living glory of Telugu Cinema. Apart
from being a stage artiste and acting in movies for
over six decades, he is also a film producer, an entrepreneur,
a philanthropist and a writer.
Born in Venkata Raghavapuram, on September
20, 1924 to a farming couple Punnamma and Venkataratnam,
the village boy Nagesawara played female lead roles
on stage. In popular plays like Harishchandra, Kanaka
Tara, Vipranarayana, Telugu Talli, Aasajyoti and
Satyanveshanam, he not only displayed his acting
talent but also won the hearts of the audience with
his feminine looks.
When he was fifteen he swapped female roles with male
roles and from theatre to cinema. His debut was Dharma
Patni, a film released in January 1941.
In over six decades, he has acted in 246 films, including
26 in Tamil and one in Hindi. Most of them were hits
and were appreciated for their aesthetic and entertainment
values.
Interestingly, ANR has played roles as varied as that
of saints and poets in Mahakavi Kalidas Bhakta Jayadeva,
Amarasilpi Jakkana, Vipranarayana, Bhakta Tukaram, Mahakavi
Kshetrayya, Chakradhari (Gora Kumbhar) and
Tenali Ramakrishna; mythological figures in Sitarama
Jananam, Maya Bazar, Chenchu Lakshmi and Krishnarjuna
Yuddham and the evergreen lover in Laila Majnu
and Anarkali. Be it rustic or urban, social
or period, tragic or light-hearted, with a social message
or purely entertaining, ANR has never failed in bringing
out the various shades of the characters.
His skill has not gone unrecognised, with several regional
and national awards for acting coming his way. He also
received the Padmashree in 1968, the Padmabhushan
in 1988 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in
1990. In 1993 the Nagarjuna University conferred
on him an honorary D. Litt.
Dr ANR was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors
of Annapurna Pictures Private Limited. He founded
the Annapurna Pulverising Mills and Annapurna
Flour Mills at Eluru and Annapurna Enterprises
and Annapurna Lithographics at Hyderabad.
He served as a Director on the Board of National
Film Development Corporation and is a Life Member
of the Senate of Andhra University. A philanthropist,
he has donated much to the cause of education and for
the Indian jawans and victims of calamities. Dr Akkineni
Nageswara Rao has also written Nenu Naa Jeevitham
(an autobiography), Nenu Choosina America (travelogue)
and A - AA - Lu - Thoughts of Akkineni (lyrical
expressions).
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