Film Career
It was in 1941, at the age of 17, that he made his debut in the Telugu film, as he's fondly referred to, was discovered by chance at the Vijayawada railway station by the noted film producer, Ghantasala Balaramaiah. Before that, he predominantly acted in theater, many times donning female roles since women weren't allowed on stage at that time.His most popular stage plays were Asha Jyothy, Sathyanveshana, and Telugu Thalli. ANR was first cast in a lead film role in Sitarama Jananam, where he played the role of Lord Rama. He has since acted in over 255 films, spanning the Telugu, Tamil and Hindi languages. A majority of his films were both commercial and critical successes.
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 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 28 acre production studio/house, Annapurna Studios in the heart of Hyderabad, to facilitate this.
Read more about this topic: Akkineni Nageswara Rao
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