A legendary presence on Telugu celluloid

This is the centenary year of versatile actor par excellence, evergreen cini hero Akkineni Nageswara Rao who left the silver screen at the age of 90. His desire to act till he dies, is fulfilled. He is an uneducated gentleman but learned a lot in life and a good orator in excellent Telugu, owner of Annapurna studio, almost contemporary to another legendary actor N T Ramarao and stentorian singer Ghantasala. This trio hailed from nearby villages in Gudivada in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh.

ANR is a recipient of numerable awards and rewards in his seventy years span on tinsel screen. A great disciplinarian, he politely refused when he was coerced to join politics. He was famous as tragedy king although he acted in many social, devotional and other movies. Tollywood used to call ANR and NTR as two eyes in the Telugu industry. He was an atheist but a helpful humanist. He was instrumental in shifting Tollywood from Madras to Hyderabad.

His life-size bronze statue erected in Annapurna studio was unveiled by former Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu on September 20, the birthday of this classic personality. Sometime ago I addressed a letter through press that ANR's birth anniversary should be celebrated in Tollywood as' Actors' Day' and posted copies of it to some who praised ANR this day but it did not materialise. Present-day actors should emulate ANR and learn the skills in acting to remain on the screen for a long period.

–N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad