Akkineni Nageswara Rao (born September 20, 1924 at Venkataraghavapuram, Dist. Krishna, Andhra Pradesh), also known as ANR, is a film actor from Gudivada Andhra Pradesh. He is one of the first fully commercial Telugu Cinema heroes. His films include a diverse range of genres which include mythological, folk tale, social, adventure and drama. He is a contemporary to NTR who jointly shared popularity as one of the greatest telugu actors for almost 40 years. He is fondly called 'Natasamrat' by his fans.
Awards
Nageswara Rao was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1990 for his lifetime contributions to Indian Cinema. He is also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
Contribution
He is the first person to cause the shift of Telugu film industry to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh from Chennai, Tamilnadu in an attempt to bring the native language to the heart of the Telugu community. Soon after moving to Hyderabad, Nageswara Rao founded his own production house, Annapoorna Studios (named after his wife Akkineni Annapoorna), located in Banjara Hills.
Acting Prowess
He is noted for his class roles in the mid 1960s. He is specifically remembered in Andhra Pradesh for his biographical roles like Dr.Chakravarthy, Devadasu, Vipranarayana, Chakradhari, Tukaram, Kalidasu, Jayadeva, Tenali Ramakrishna, and Kshethrayya. Moreover he is popular as hero of many popular fiction novels which were made into films such as Doctor Chakravarthi, Prema Nagar, Secretary etc.
He also acted in about 20-odd Tamil movies.
Even at the age of 84, Dr Akkineni Nageswara Rao still acts.
His younger son Nagarjuna is also an actor and a popular star in Telugu.
Biggest Hit
Akkineni's Premabhishekam (directed by Dasari Narayana Rao) is one of the biggest hits in Tollywood. Premabhishekam had an amazing 533 days run in Hyderabad which is still highest run in a city for telugu movies. Premabhishekam is the only Telugu film that ran for 365+ days continously.
