End of an era in Telugu cinema..!!!

Sri Akkineni Nageswara Rao

Demise of Sri Akkineni Nageswara Rao marks end of an era in Telugu cinema. Nageswara Rao, popularly known as ANR, died early hours of Tuesday at the age of 91 after losing his battle with cancer.

Legendary thespian Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who strode the Telugu film world like a colossus in the 60s and 70s and had a stature on par with N T Rama Rao, was instrumental in bringing Telugu film industry to Hyderabad.

Born in a humble agrarian family in Krishna district of coastal Andhra Pradesh in 1924, he had a brush with theatre at a tender age before making his debut in early 1940s with the film ‘Dharmapatni’, in which he enacted the role of a woman.

A stalwart in his own right, he went on to act in around 256 films, including some in Tamil and Hindi, in a career spanning seven decades and was the recipient of several coveted awards including the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan Awards.

Nageswara Rao, a contemporary of towering south Indian heroes like M G Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan and N T Rama Rao.

Nageswara Rao had played a key role in the Telugu film industry shifting its base from Chennai to Hyderabad.

A strict disciplinarian in real life, Nageswara Rao earned kudos for his poignant portrayal of an alcoholic and jilted lover in films like ‘Devdas’, ‘Prem Nagar’ and ‘Premabhishekam’.

He immortalised the character of ‘Devdas’ in the Telugu film based on the novel of acclaimed Bengali author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya.

His demise marks a sad day for Telugu people, in particular Telugu Cinema(Tollywood) and Cinema Lovers.