Akkineni Nageswara Rao's Rare And Unseen Pictures

From a poor farmer's son to one of the most loved and respected actors of Indian cinema, Akkineni Nageswara Rao's journey, which lasted over seven decades, could very well make an interesting story of a film. ANR, who as a youngster, walked bare foot in Gudivada in Krishna district of coastal Andhra, rose to the dizzy heights of stardom and became a symbol of the Telugu film industry or Tollywood as it is popularly called sometimes.

ANR, as fans fondly called him, died of cancer at a private hospital here in the early hours of Wednesday, plunging the industry into gloom. He was 89 and is survived by three daughters and two sons, including popular actor Nagarjuna. He was the last of the most popular first generation actors of Telugu cinema and was considered one of the two all-time greats of Telugu cinema, the other being NT Rama Rao (NTR) who died in 1996. Akkineni Nageswara Rao started his career as an actor in theatre when he was just nine. In the initial years of his career, he even played female characters. His passion for cinema was spotted by his mother at a very young age. "I dropped out of school because my family couldn't afford it. I used to help my mother at her work, but at leisure, I used to stand in front of the mirror and act," Rao told in his interview last year. The 91-year-old legendary actor said, "My mother noticed my interest in acting and asked my brother to introduce me to the local theatre group. I can't even think of what I would have been if not an actor."