Actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao dies of cancer

Well known veteran Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao also known as ANR, died at a private hospital in Hyderabad on Jan 22, 2014. He was suffering from intestinal cancer for past few months. His body will be cremated on Thursday.

Actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, son of the 91-year-old actor said that his father was doing absolutely fine on Tuesday evening and was recovering well from the surgery. The actor’s body was kept at Annapurna Studios allowing members from film industry and fans to pay their last respects.

Nageswara Rao was born on Sep 20, 1923 and he worked mainly in Telugu and a few Tamil films. In his 75-year long acting career, Nageswara Rao has acted in around 256 films. He started as a theater actor, playing women roles in the initial years. He debuted in Telugu movie Dharmapatni in 1941 and landed the lead role of Lord Rama in “Sitarama Jananam” in 1944.

Nageswara Rao’s famous role was in the movie “Devadasu” for which he was appreciated by even Dilip Kumar. He acted in “Prem Nagar” and “Premabhishekam” that successfully ran for 533 days in Hyderabad. He was India’s cultural ambassador for countries like USA, Russia and many others.

ANR received three Filmfare Best Actor awards and was honored with the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1991. He also received India’s second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan award for his contribution to Indian cinema. Before dying, he was shooting for the Telugu movie “Manam” with his son Nagarjuna and grandson Naga Chaitanya.