Nagarjuna Says His Grandmother Used To Dress Up Father ANR Like A Girl

By The Capital

On 24 Nov 2024 17:32:15

Nagarjuna Says His Grandmother Used To Dress Up Father ANR Like A Girl

At the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), actor Nagarjuna Akkineni shared anecdotes about his father, legendary Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR).

At the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), actor Nagarjuna Akkineni shared anecdotes about his father, legendary Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR). From being dressed as a girl in childhood to starting his career with female roles, ANR overcame challenges, mockery, and personal struggles to become a cinema icon.

Veteran actor Nagarjuna on Friday said his grandmother always wanted to have a girl child and when that didn't happen, she started dressing up his father and Telugu cinema star Akkineni Nageswara Rao as one.

Nagarjuna recalled his father, fondly known as ANR, would look cute in plaits and believes that's one of the factors that attracted the late legend to acting.

In conversation with Nagarjuna

At an in-conversation session at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the actor shared many anecdotes about ANR, whose birth centenary was observed in September. The film gala is also celebrating the legacy of the Telugu cinema stalwart by showcasing a restored version of his 1953 movie Devadasu.

"He came from a very humble family, a farmer's family. He was born near Andhra Pradesh (erstwhile part of the Madras residency), a village which didn't have electricity. "My grandmother always wanted to have a woman child. She used to dress him up (like a woman) in plaits. He used to look very pretty and cute. We still have a photograph of him dressed as a girl. He looked exactly like my older sister Sathya. I think these were the things which led him to become an actor," Nagarjuna said.

ANR, whose seven-decade career includes diverse films such as Vipra Narayana, Tenali Krishna, Sri Ramadasu, LailaMajnu, and Balaraju, started out playing roles of women on stage.

"In those days women were not allowed to be an actor or act on stage. So, he started playing women's roles. He first became a heroine on stage.

"As fate took its turn, he was at a railway station when famous producer Ghantasala Balaramayya, who was sitting in the train, saw him walking and said 'nice eyes, nice nose'. Would you like to act? Rest, as they say, is history," recounted Nagarjuna.