Akkineni Nageswar Rao Is Great

Akkineni Nageswara Rao (born 20 September 1923) is a prominent Indian film actor and producer, predominantly in the Telugu language. From paddy fields, he strode into the field of fine arts through theatre. He became a famous stage artiste, specialising, surprisingly, in playing female characters,^[1] because women at that time were prohibited from acting. Some of the famous plays he acted in were Harishchandra, Kanakatara, Vipranarayana, Telugu Talli, Aasajyoti and Satyanveshanam.^[2] Subsequently, he was discovered, by chance, by the then prominent film producer, Ghantasala Balaramaiah, at the Vijayawada railway station. He was then cast in the film, Dharmapatni. Since then, Nageswara Rao has starred in several films of various genres during his unparalleled 71-year acting career. He was honored with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour for his contribution to Indian cinema, and is the recipient of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest individual lifetime achievement award for films in India.

Akkineni Nageswara Rao was the youngest of 5 brothers born into a poor family on 20 September 1924 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 conditions.

The farm boy, who never imagined that he would cross the borders of his village or district, toured all over the world as an ambassador of art and culture. 

Among other things, Nageswara 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. The new state of Andhra Pradeshwas 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, Annapurna Studios in the heart of Hyderabad, to facilitate this