New Delhi: Versatility, humility and a powerhouse of talent. These are some of the words often used to describe Akkineni Nageswara Rao, or ANR, as he was fondly called.
An actor and producer who worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil cinema, ANR was most famous for his work in Telugu cinema. In a career spanning 71 years and more than 250 movies, ANR was known for his diversity of roles. He acted in mainstream movies and offbeat films, in mythologies, dramas and comedies.
The Telugu icon has been awarded the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Raghupati Venkaiah Award and many Filmfare Awards, among others. His Telugu audience also gave him the title of Nata Samrat.
On his 6th death anniversary, ThePrint looks into the phenomenon that was ANR and why he believed that young actors should choose at least one film a year that would bring out their acting prowess.
From playing female characters in local plays to the best Devdas
Born in 1923 in Ramapuram in Andhra Pradesh, ANR came from a very humble background. The youngest of five brothers, ANR (then Akkineni) only studied until class 5. In an interview, he had once said, “There are no girls in our family, so my mother used to decorate me as a girl and enjoy herself. Finally, that helped me in playing girl roles in stage plays. I developed myself as a heroine in stage plays.”
He started acting at the age of 10 in female roles as women at the time were prohibited from acting. He acted in many plays, until one day he was discovered, on the platform of Vijayawada railway station, by Ghantasala Balaramaiah of Pratibha Pictures who booked him for the role of Kalyanarama in his film Sitarama Jananam in 1944.
However, it was 1955, when he played the doomed lover Devadas in Devadasu, that many say was his turning point. Among these people is the original Devdas, Dilip Kumar himself, who said, “There is only one Devadas, and that is Akkineni Nageswara Rao.”
ANR believed that star power could not pull a film through and it was the subject and the characters that were the real heroes of his films. And his own film repertoire covered it all. He dabbled with comedy in Missamma and dancing in Iddaru Mitrulu, acted in a family drama (Parivartana), did a musical (Mugguru Maratilu), which ran for 100 days straight. The atheist also did mythological movies such Balaraju and Maya Bazar, the former fetching him his first silver jubilee.
To ensure that Telugu cinema grew and developed, ANR once said that young actors must choose at least one film per year that would bring out their acting prowess, even if they had to forgo some remuneration. “They have to grow with the industry,” he said.
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Each film is like a PhD for me
In an interview, ANR said that for him each film was like a PhD. “I just studied up to Class 5. I don’t have any degrees. But each of the films I played stood as a teacher for me and taught me several points.”
He treated each film as a learning process, therefore, despite being such a big star, also took on offbeat movies like Sudigundaalu and Maro Prapancham, which he also produced. If each film was a PhD for him then he was his own teacher, and was extremely strict with himself, in his lifestyle and even in his relationship with his son, well-known actor Nagarjuna, who was brought up with a “miserly” strictness.
It was perhaps this discipline that also held him in good stead when another Telugu star, N.T. Rama Rao, burst onto the scene in 1948. ANR recalled that everyone told him that his career was over after NTR. “But what NTR actually did was help me grow by giving me competition. A walkover would have been boring. I began to choose my roles with greater care and focus more,” he said.
The two acted in more than 14 moves together and were very close personally. He once said with a smile, “We were great friends though completely different in nature. We got along well while our fans fought.”
Not letting his personal views get in the way of his work, ANR once recalled that because he was an atheist, directors would doubt whether he could play Rama or Krishna with the same conviction as NTR. To this, he would reply by saying, “Acting is make-believe. It’s
either done well or done badly. While I may not believe in Rama, I believe in Valmiki, who created Rama to make mankind believe in the goodness of God.”
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In Re Akkineni Nageswara Rao, in ‘Seeta ramajananam’, he essayed the role of Lord Rama and it was his first mythological movie. He did not do any dance in ‘Iddaru Mitrulu’ but his first dual role; his dancing talent came into focus much later in films like ‘Buddhimantudu’, ‘Poola Rangadu’, ‘ Dasara Bullodu’ etc. His turning point in film land came with ‘Keelu Gurram’ – a run away hit followed by ‘ Balaraju’ – which was a folklore , not a mythological as mentioned. His success was further cemented by ‘ Suvarna Sundari’ – another folklore which was one of his biggest musical hits (In 1971 ‘Dasara Bullodu’ – a social, family drama surpassed it and became his biggest musical hit of his career ). His histrionics were lauded for his role of Sharat’s Devadas by one and all including Dilip kumar. The success of ‘Devadasu’ established him in social films while his contemporary, later actor turned politician NTR firmly entrenched himself in folklore and mythological films.
In spite of his being one of the most popular commercial heroes for a longtime, ANR could muster up courage to make message oriented movies like ‘ Sudigunadalu’ and ‘Maro Prapancham’ much later in his career whereas NTR made his very own 2nd production ‘ Todu Dongalu’ – from a socialistic genre very early in his career.