ANR’s Birth Anniversary: A Few Lesser Known Facts Of This Legendary Actor

Akkineni Nageswara Rao was born on 20th September, 1923 and breathed his last on 22nd January, 2014. He acted in more than 225 movies and had a career span of almost 7 decades.

He set-up Annapurna Studios with the name of his wife in 1950s and helped the producers and actors to organize their shootings in Hyderabad itself!

Nageswara Rao was born in a farmer family and was the youngest of 9 children. But unfortunately, he lost his father, 3 brothers and only sister when he was a child. Thus, his mother who wanted her daughter to join films made ANR dressed up in female attire and made him act in the movies.

ANR’s first movie was Dharmapatni as a child artist… He was spotted by ace producer Ghantasala Balaramayya in a railway station who was looking for a junior artist. He liked little ANR and gave him the chance of acting in his movie.

ANR was a disciplined actor… He used to spend 10 hours in the shooting and return home by 7 PM to spend the evening time with his family.

Earlier when ANR was asked about joining politics, he said, “Politics is a cold-blooded heartless operation that numbs the senses. There are better joys in life. But retiring from films will mean my death. I wish to die and be remembered as an actor and continue to live in the hearts of the people long after I have gone.”.

Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s last film was Manam which was released in 2014. This movie is a memorable one as it had ANR, Akkineni Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya in the lead roles. Even Akhil also made his debut with this movie and essayed a small cameo role!