Thespian Akkineni Nageswara Rao is being honoured at the ongoing International Film Festival of India during his centenary year.is being honoured at the ongoing International Film Festival of India during his centenary year. His son and actor Nagarjuna discussed his work and achievements in a conversation with Kushboo Sundar at the film festival on Friday.
When asked how ANR was always passionate about acting with his mother being his first audience, Nagarjuna reminisced, “He came from a humble farmer’s family in Andhra Pradesh. My grandmother always wanted to have a girl child. She used to dress him up in women’s clothes, that is why he probably got into acting. He used to look very cute and pretty. Those days, women were not allowed to act on stage. So, he started playing a woman’s role and became a heroine on stage at a very young age of 15. We still have the photograph of him dressed up as a girl; he looked like my older sister Satya.”
Theatre led to films when a famous producer saw ANR walking towards a railway station. “He said nice eyes, nose, etc, called the boy and asked if he wanted to act and the rest is history,” Nagarjuna said. ANR went to Chennai and later recalled how he was swaying his hips during a shot because he thought that was acting.
“He thought acting was that because he was playing a girl on stage. People started making fun of him and that really dejected him. He went to the Marina beach and he said that I want to kill myself. The water was till his waist, but something in him said that he had to prove everyone wrong so he came back. He corrected himself and he played Sri Rama. I also said that his voice was weak and feeble. So, he used to go to the beach to smoke a cigar because someone said that it can make your voice hoarse and rough. He never used to smoke till then. He used to scream at the ocean for 10-20 minutes. There wasn’t any dubbing back then, he had to use his own voice. But fortunately, his first film was a silent film. It was a huge success,” said his son.
