Akkineni Nageswara Rao Biography 
Akkineni Nageswara Rao, fondly called ANR is a prominent film maker and actor of Telugu movies. He is the winner of the most prestigious awards of Indian Cinema – Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his unparallel contributions to Indian cinema. He received this award from government of India in the year 1990. He has also received Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour. He has also received Padma shree and Padma Bhushan. Thus he has received the highest 4 civilian awards of India. He belonged to a poor family of farmers, dropped his studies to financially help the family, but later became one of the greatest names of Indian Cinema. His elder son Venkat Akkikeni is a famous producer of Telugu movies while his second son, Nagarjuna is a renowned actor. Leading actress of South Indian movies during late 80’s and early 80’s, Amala Akkineni is his daughter-in-law. In a career spanning about 70 years, he acted in about 200 movies. Now his grand children have also entered film industry.
Akkineni Nageswara Rao was born as the youngest of 5 brothers born into a poor family on 20 September 1924 at Ramapuram, Andhra Pradesh. He could complete his primary education only. He used to assist his mother and at leisure time, he acted in front of mirror. Seeing this, his mother encouraged him and joined him in a local amateur drama group. In those days, females hesitated to work in drama and cinema. So, Akkineni was given female’s role in majority of films. He was discovered by chance at the Vijayawada railway station by the noted film producer, Ghantasala Balaramaiah and casted him in the movie, Dharmapatni in the year 1941. Akkikeni was only 17 that time and he played the role of the protagonist's friend.
His next movie was Ghantasala Balaramaiah’s Seeta Rama kalyanam where he played the lead role of Lord Rama. From there on, there witnessed the rise of a new star whom we know by the name ANR. In his opinion, Batasari is his finest performance. Through Devadasu, he got the status of first romantic hero of Telugu movies. These two movies are very close to him. Other popular roles include – Maya Bazar, Meghasandesam, Sudigundalu and Antastulu.
Published: N/A
Updated: July 04, 2018
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