ANR EARLY LIFE & BACKGROUND:
Akkineni Rao was born into a poor family on 20 September 1923, the youngest of five brothers, at Ramapuram, Krishna District.[1] His parents, Akkineni Venkatratnam and Akkineni Punnamma, were from the farming community. His formal education was limited to primary schooling due to his parents' poor economic condition Indian cinema.
Rao was invited as a State Guest by the United States, the UK, France and Germany in 1964, and the USSR in 1972, to study film craft and theatre arts in the respective countries. He visited Australia in 1967 leading the delegates for the Indian entry film, Antastulu, at the Sydney Film Festival. He also led a film delegation to Mauritius.
FILM CAREER:
In 1941, at the age of 17, Rao made his debut in the Telugu film, Dharmapatni, in which he played the role of the protagonist's friend.[8] ANR, as he's referred to, was discovered by chance at the Vijayawada railway station by the film producer, Ghantasala Balaramaiah, and was offered the lead role of Lord Rama in his upcoming movie Seeta Rama Jananam.[8] Before that, he predominantly acted in theatre, many times donning female roles since women weren't allowed on stage at that time.[9][8] He acted in over 255 films, spanning the Telugu, Tamil and Hindi languages and became of the most prominent figures in the history of Telugu cinema.[3] A majority of his films were both commercial and critical successes.
Among other things, Rao is credited for influencing Telugu film producers and creating a base for Telugu films in Hyderabad. The Telugu film industry, in its early days, was based out of Madras (now Chennai) in Tamil Nadu.[10] The new state of Andhra Pradesh was carved out from the Madras Presidency on 1 November 1956 and several leaders opined that in order to create a separate identity for the Telugu film industry, it had to be based out of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. ANR was one of the first actors of that period who insisted on moving the Telugu film center from Chennai to Hyderabad. He established his own 22 acre production studio/house, named Annapurna Studios after his wife, in the heart of Hyderabad, to facilitate this.
Despite being an atheist, Rao acted in various movies with strong religious themes such as Vipranarayana,Tukaram, Sriramadasu, Sriramarajyam etc..
AWARDS AND HONOURS:
Civilian honors:
Padma Vibhushan (2011)
National Film Awards:
Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1991)
Filmfare Awards South:
Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu) -- Sudigundalu (1968)
Filmfare Best Actor Award (Telugu) -- Marapurani Manishi (1973)
Filmfare Best Actor Award (Telugu) -- Seetharamaiah Gari Manavaralu (1991)
Filmfare Best Actor Award (Telugu) -- Bangaru Kutumbam (1994)
Nandi Awards:
Raghupathi Venkaiah Award (1989)
NTR National Award (1996)
Nandi Award for Best Actor:
Meghasandesam (1982)
Bangaru Kutumbam (1994)
Other State honors:
Kalaimamani from Tamil Nadu State
Kalidasu from Madhya Pradesh State At one point he was also appointed as an adviser to the State Film Development Corporation.
International honors:
Life time Achievement Award from Telugu Association of North America - 2012
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