Akkineni Nageshwara Rao Dies aged 91 Wednesday Jan 22,2014

 

Legendary Telugu film actor Akkineni Nageshwara Rao, passed away early on Jan 22,2014 Wednesday morning. ANR, as he is fondly called, was suffering from cancer. His condition worsened at around 2.10 am on Wednesday following which he was taken to Care hospital, where he breathed his last at 2.45 am

His body has been shifted to his residence.

His last rites will be performed on Thursday Jan 23,2014 after his body is kept for fans to pay respects at the Annapurna Studio in Hyderabad ,Andhra Pradesh,India

His death marks the end of another glorious, unforgettable chapter in Telugu cinema, an industry that makes the second largest number of films, next only to Bollywood.

About Akkineni Nageshwara Rao

• popularly known as ANR, was born in Ramapuram, Andhra Pradesh on September 20, 1923 to farmer parents

• started his career with theatre and made his film debut at the tender age of 17 with the Telugu movie Dharmapatni (1941)

• discovered by noted film producer Ghantasala Balaramaiah landed him the lead role of Lord Rama in Seeta Rama Jananam (1944)

• attained the status of a superstar with films targetting rural cine-goers such as Balaraju (1948), Rojulu Marayi (1955) and Nammina Bantu (1960)

• was a versatile actor who played a multitude of roles ranging from a prince to a government official but his forte was playing mythological figures like he played in the films -played Abhimanyu in Maya Bazaar (1957), Lord Vishnu in Chenchu Lakshmi (1958) and Arjuna in Sri Krishnarjuna Yuddham (1962)

• earned the title of Telugu cinema's Tragedy King for his powerful performances in movies such as Laila Majnu (1949), Anarkali (1955), Premabhishekam (1981), and Meghasandesham (1983)

• as the jilted alcoholic lover in Devadasu (1953), based on Bengali author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's famous character, won accolades even from the likes of Bollywood star Dilip Kumar who played the love-lorn Devdas in the Hindi film of the same name

• also earned widespread acclaim for playing cultural icons such as Kalidas, Bhakta Jayadeva of Odisha, Vipranarayana or the singer Bhakta Tukaram

• also has acted in a number of comedies such as Chakrapani (1954), Missamma (1955) and Preminchi Choodu (1965)

• The superhit movie Premabhishekam ran for a record-breaking 533 days in Hyderabad and is still the longest running Telugu film in a city till date

Awards and Honours

• represented India as a cultural ambassador all over the world in countries such as USA, Russia, UK, France, Germany, Denmark and Malaysia

• received three Filmfare Best Actor awards in his 75-year long acting career

• honoured with the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1991

• received Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, for his contribution to Indian cinema.

Family

ANR is survived by -

• son Telugu superstar Nagarjuna and grandson Naga Chaitanya
• son Akkineni Venkat and
• daughters Sathyavati and Susheela

ANR,the ‘Good Samaritan’ is gone forever

A group of 30-odd women from Ramapuram, his native village in Nandivada mandal, find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that their ‘Good Samaritan’ is gone forever. 

“I had the privilege of direct access to him over telephone. In my last interaction with him a few months ago, I discussed with him how to impart quality training in tailoring to the fresh batch of women from the economically poor households in the village,” says Kandula Siva Parvathi, a trainer at Akkineni Kalakshetram at Ramapuram.

The above batch of women is undergoing free training in tailoring and computer basics at ANR’s photo library which now doubles up as ‘Kalakshetram’. 

ANR may have visited the Kalakshetram for the last time as early as in August of 2010 but he had always been a driving force for women of this village by keeping in touch with them constantly to cater to their needs.

The loss is also deeply felt in Gudivada town where students of ANR College bade a tearful adieu to him.

The huge posters displayed along the road between Gudiwada-Vijayawada and Machilipatnam-Ramapuram had the passers-by walking down memory lane of the illustrious film career of Akkineni Nageswara Rao.

Many residents of Ramapuram left for Hyderabad to pay their last respects

The house where Akkineni Nageswara Rao spent his childhood at Ramapuram in Krishna district.

 

Thousands bid tearful adieu to ANR Thursday Jan 23,2014

The mortal remains of the thespian Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who died in the early hours of Wednesday, were consigned to flames at the Annapurna Studios here on Thursday afternoon, with full police honours amid a 21-gun salute as thousands of fans, friends and relatives bid a tearful adieu. 

The final journey of legendary ANR came to an end slightly after 3.30 p.m. at the Studios.

 His sons Venkat and Nagarjuna and grandchildren Sumanth, Naga Chaitanya, Akhil and Sushant carried the body to the pyre

Prominent among those who attended the funeral were -

• Union Minister of State for Tourism K. Chiranjeevi
• former Union Ministers T. Subbarami Reddy
• Dasari Narayana Rao 
• U.V. Krishnam Raju
• D. Rama Naidu 
• Allu Arvind
• K. Raghavendra Rao
• Gunnam Gangaraju
• Madhura Sridhar
• actor-turned MLA Jayasudha
• Sridevi
• Tabu
• Anushka Shetty
• Maheswari
• Jeevitha
• Ramaprabha 
• Kaikala Satyanarayana
• Venkatesh
• Jr. NTR
• Muralimohan
• Tarak
• Dr. Rajasekhar and 
• Adivi Sesh. 

The State Govt was represented by Ministers D. Nagender and Kasu Venkatakrishna Reddy, apart from the chairman of the AP Official Languages Commission Mandali Buddha Prasad. 

Earlier in the day, his body was moved to the A.P. Film Chamber of Commerce and kept there to enable fans and well-wishers to pay their last respects

Akkineni Nageswara Rao's children - actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, Naga Susheela, Akkineni Venkat - are inconsolable after the body of the screen legend was consigned to flames at the Annapurna Studios premises in Hyderabad on Thursday

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