The veteran Telugu Movie Star Akkineni Nageswara Rao , fondly called ANR is no more. He passed away yesterday in the wee hours battling cancer at the age of 91. The whole city of Hyderabad mourned his demise.

A movie career spanning 70 years , with many a laurels on the way ended ,leaving behind three generations of movie stars in house and a movie studio not to speak about the many institutions established by him over the years. The small time village artist from Gudivada rose to prominence not only as an accomplished movie star but a great human being , a thorough gentleman always willing to go an extra mile in alleviating the sufferings of the less privileged in the society.

ANR was an enigma to Telugu and Tamil movie goers and I remember my childhood days when we used to see his movies like Devdas many times over.It was a chance incident when I met him briefly at the Secunderabad club 10 years back over lunch. I was very happy indeed to meet one of my childhood hero in person.

Movie personalities like ANR , NTR or MGR from South India are not mere personalities but great institutions impacting the lives and dreams of the general public in many ways.They are also great models for the common man to look up to ,admire and worship , at times creating crazy fan clubs around. This phenomenon is unique in India and not seen in other parts of the movie world.

Long live the legacy of ANR !


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