Discipline and hard work were the biggest reason for the success of Akkineni Nageswara Rao and the Telugu cinema industry is celebrating his 100th birth anniversary today. He acted in many path-breaking films in his 75-year career and became one of the legendary personalities of Telugu cinema.
Born in 1923, ANR made his foray into Telugu Film Industry when he was 17 with Dharmapatni. The role of Lord Rama in the film Seeta Rama Jananam produced by Ghantasala Balaramaiah was the major break in his career.
ANR played a variety of roles ranging from a charming prince to a frustrated alcoholic lover, from a valiant soldier to a holy saint, from a mythological role to a witty character, and from a college student to a composed government official. For his exceptional performance in Devdas, he won the tag of “Tragedy King” of Telugu Cinema.
The film Premabhishekam directed by Dasari Narayana Rao is one of the biggest hits in Tollywood. It had an amazing 500+ days run in Hyderabad City, which is still the highest run in a city for any Telugu movie.
He acted in around 255 films of different languages like Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi. He was instrumental in shifting the base of Telugu cinema from Madras to Hyderabad. He founded his own production house, Annapurna Studio, to support the industry. He later started the Annapurna International School of Film and Media in 2011.
Following the footsteps of his father, Nagarjuna entered the industry when he was a kid and he is now one of the most iconic stars of Telugu cinema. The third generation from Akkineni family are also doing movies.
Marking ANR’s 100th birth anniversary, Akkineni family will be launching his Panchaloha Idol in Annapurna Studios.
ANR lives on!
