Akkineni Nageswara Rao – the name brings into the memories an actor as big as life, an artiste more than just a star, a complete individual standing as a mark in golden history, a living legend in the 75-year history of Telugu Cinema! January 10 of 1941 saw him as a child artiste in Dharmapatni. With Seetarama Jananam (1944), he stood as a young hero in the lead role, when other heroes were soon to step out of the limelight.

Starting then, it's interesting that a hero who was soon to be famous for his roles in social movies acted in 18 mythological and folkloric movies, before he was chosen for Samsaaram (1950). Samsaaram was not just the first social movie for Nageswara Rao – it marked the first combination of this hero with Savithri and NTR! However, Savithri only acted in a very small role in the movie, and Palletoori Pilla was released first in NTR-ANR combo, though both movies started at about the same time. (Palletoori Pilla released on April 27 and Samsaaram released on December 29, a delay due to financial problems for the latter.) Samsaaram was Savithri's debut movie, and she acted with Nageswara Rao in Shanti (1952) before she acted opposite him in Brathuku Theruvu (1953) and later the same year in the blockbuster Devadas.

Nageswara Rao's presence in the industry witnessed many changes in first person, and some were in fact initiated by him! He was a singing hero of the old times who sang for himself in some movies, until Balaraju (1945). Though he sang a number (cheliyaa kanaraavaa...) for the audio of the movie, he suggested to the director that they could use then-upcoming Ghantasala's voice in the movie. (That was a time when the singers had to sing once for the audio and again for the movie.) From then on, Ghantasala was the first choice for his films, and he never had to croon again (except for occasional incidences like meeku meerE... in Missamma). Of course, this is not to belittle the musical hits such as Vipranarayana (1954) and Pelli Kanuka (1960) with A.M. Rajah's playback for Nageswara Rao.

When N.T. Ramarao entered the filmdom in 1949 with Mana Desam, Nageswara Rao, in his own words, felt that he fell short of that new hero in looks, and wondered how, being only a hero since five years then, he could keep his career that just started to rise. Surely, he did not know that they were both going to stay in the field for several years as the two eyes of the film industry, and also that their combined screen presence was probably going to be the longest combination of two big heroes in the history of Telugu Cinema, with 15 movies to their credit, covering all major genres of their times – social, mythological, folkloric, and historic movies (Palletoori Pilla, Samsaaram, Missamma, Gundamma Katha, Parivarthana, Charanadasi, Ramakrishnulu, Sathyam-Shivam; Mayabazar, Bhookailas, Sreekrishnarjuna Yuddham; Rechukka; Tenali Ramakrishna, Bhakta Ramadasu, Chanakya Chandragupta). It is interesting to note that each of these great artistes had their share of roles – NTR was popular for his mythological and folkloric roles, while ANR was popular in social and historic movies. They both acted as brothers, friends, brothers-in-law to each other, and more. More surprisingly, ANR acted as son-in-law to NTR in Mayabazar, while NTR acted as grandson on ANR (as referred in the movie, and in the way they call each other) in Bhookailas!

Bharyabhartalu, Kulagotralu, Iddaru Mitrulu stand as examples of an interesting turn in Telugu cinema too, with little more "movements" in songs than earlier. Needless to say, all these, and even Dasara Bullodu (1970) that officially brought "steps" into movies, had Nageswara Rao in the lead! Our heroes still continue to dance and will probably do so as long as Telugu cinema exists!

When Nageswara Rao was still a new name in the field, Telugu movies were made in Madras and Calcutta. It took a while for Telugu filmdom to come home fully, and ANR's role in bringing this change is well-known – as one of the first Telugu cine personalities to move his home to Hyderabad, and as a studio owner in Hyderabad by establishing Annapurna Studios, which thrives as one of the good studios still, with its annex that stretches over "seven acres" (and is thus called so). Not just resources, his family has given a considerable number of people to the industry too – heroes Nagarjuna and Sumanth, heroine Supriya (Amala did not act after coming into the family.), child artiste Akhil, and Annapurna and Venkat who produced a few movies on their home production company.

Nageswara Rao is as popular for his Casanova-styled roles as he is popular for roles of devotees and poets! Such is the diversity of the artiste! He won laurels for his title roles of Jayadeva, Tenali Ramakrishna, Kshetrayya, Thukaram, Vipranarayana, Jakkana, Chanakya, etc. and for his playboy-like roles in Bharyabhartalu, Premnagar, Sreemanthudu, etc. And thus, in Buddhimanthudu, he shows his dexterity in both roles. Special mention is required of his drunkard and dejected lover roles that brought him so great a fame that people in fact thought he was a very bad drunkard even in real life which he is not! His roles in Premnagar and Premabhishekam were so praiseworthy that heroes in these movies made in other languages admitted that they could not perform as great as ANR! Veterans no less than Rajesh Khanna and Sivaji Ganeshan played his role in Hindi and Tamil versions of Premnagar and none other than the versatile artiste Kamal Hasan played his role in the Tamil version of Premabhishekam! Such is the caliber of the actor, who could impress as a grandfather in Seetharamayya Gaari Manavaraalu (1992) as well as a playboy dancing with five heroines in a rehashed version of Mayabazar (1996)!

There's a lot to write about this Dadasaheb Phalke awardee who won several awards in his long career of 65 years; there's a whole Akkineni Award Gallery out there in Annapurna Studios premises! However, the rewards he got among filmgoers of at least four generations outnumber the awards by large! Only, it's appropriate to salute the living legend who has been a witness of Telugu Cinema's rise and fall, and had been more active than most of his contemporaries all through these 65 years. He worked with more than 60 heroines and several directors and producers! ...Writing about his various achievements, roles, awards, and experiences is all redundant – there's no need to "introduce" him now. In fact, there are more than a few books about this great cine personality, one of them written by himself (titled with modesty as a.. aa.. lu) and one by Mullapudi Venkata Ramana (aptly titled kathaanaayakuDi katha), and at least one such book is released even in English in order to reach a wider audience, and the legend deserves it! TeluguCinema.Com congratulates the "hero" Akkineni Nageswara Rao is, and prays that he should have long life in this world and in the hearts of filmgoers and Telugu people. In this connection, it's appropriate for young heroes and artistes to take this self-confident individualistic attitude as an ideal and live up to it, so as to stay in people's hearts nearly as long!