Fall of a colossus

While having my breakfast on the morning of January 22, I casually looked at my TV screen and stunned to see a news flash. ‘Nata Samrat Akkineni Nageshwar Rao is no more’!!! A man, who walked in the Telugu film field like a colossus, a man who made a deep impression in the hearts of millions of men and women with his memorable acting, a man who embellished Telugu cinema screen for nearly 74 years, a man who was a hero not only in films but also in real life, a man of whom we thought immortal, had breathed his last is a fact now. That death is a fact of life. But when we come to know that a giant of a man like ANR too should leave the world forever, it can’t be digested easily.

Since my childhood, I was a regular cine-goer. The first film that I saw in 1948, at the age of 7 years was ANR starrer ‘Balaraju’. My family migrated to Machilipatnam which was then called ‘Bandar’ when Razakars were annihilating the villagers of Telangana. We lived about a year in a small village near Bandar. My parents used to go to Bandar every month for purchasing provisions. On one such occasion, my father had taken me to that cinema.

It was a thrilling experience for me to watch moving pictures on screen. Till this day I remember the scintillating image of Nageswar Rao singing ‘Cheliya Kana Rava’. From then onwards, I never missed watching a film in which ANR was a hero. When I went to Warangal to pursue my studies in a high school in 1954, I fell in love with Telugu movies. During those days, ANR and NTR were the Gods of Telugu tinsel world. My friends and I used to watch every film. Some of my friends were great fans of ANR and some were of NTR. They used to have heated arguments to claim who was the best. But in our heart of hearts, we knew that both were highly talented. When ANR’s film ‘Rojulu Marayi’ celebrated 100 days function in 1956, we expected ANR to visit Warangal. But unfortunately he didn’t take part in the celebrations which was attended by Shavukaru Janaki, Relangi and Waheeda Rahman. We were terribly disappointed and I was wondering if I can ever see ANR in flesh and blood. My dream of seeing ANR fulfilled in 1966, when I was working as Lecturer in NG College in Nalgonda. I was appointed as advisor to the Club of Drama and Art and used to organise 7 to 8 stage dramas by the students of the college. In 1966 we invited ANR to inaugurate the cultural week celebrations of our college. He accepted our invitation and came all the way to Nalgonda from Hyderabad.

Entire Nalgonda was present at our college on that day. ANR enthralled the audience with his 45 minute enlightening speech. I never thought that ANR was such a great speaker. We knew that he had very little education (studied up to 4th class only) but life had taught him great lessons. Throughout his life he was conscious of his poor academic record.

I had the opportunity of meeting him again in 1988 at his residence in Banjara Hills along with my friends. We had a great interaction with him for about 2 hours. He told us that he doesn’t believe in any God. He said that he believes only in man and man is the measure of everything. Goodness itself is the God for him, hard work and devotion to one’s work is God.

Once again I met him along with my friend Dr Nerella Venu Madhav, the great mimicry artist, at his residence in Jubilee Hills in 2011. I wanted to show an essay that I had written on ‘Devadas’ as a novel and as a film. The inspiration to write this essay was the result of a suggestion made by ANR while inaugurating ‘Devadas Film Festival’ organised by Hyderabad Film Club in 2006 at Hyderabad. When I had shown this essay on Devadas, he read a paragraph of it and started speaking his experience of playing the role of Devadas in 1951. Many of his adversaries during those days pooh-poohed the idea of ANR playing the role of Devadas. Because of this reason ANR had taken it as challenge and wanted to prove his mettle. He worked day and night rehearsing. Thus he could silence his critics by giving such an unparalleled performance that no other actor in any language could match it. The great actor Dilip Kumar who acted as Devadasu in Bimol Roy’s ‘Devadas’ acknowledged that ANR’s performance as Devadas was better than his. It was the film Devadas that put him on the pedestal of Telugu silver screen. From then onwards he never looked back. By acting in more than 250 films he remained an uncrowned king of Tollywood.

He was evergreen, romantic and eternal hero whose illustrious film journey lasted over 7 decades. Many film stars after achieving some success lost their way by indulging in wild activities like drinking but for Nageswar Rao, success had never gone to his head. His discipline was exemplary. He planned his career in such a careful way that he never landed in any sort of troubles or setbacks. He always thought that first and foremost he is an actor- nothing more or nothing less. When archrival NTR entered politics many people thought that ANR too might enter political arena. Whenever this subject was brought to his notice, he flatly rejected to join in politics. Film world is his field and he would never leave the field at any cost. He used to say that he wants to breathe his last on the sets of film studio.

One of the greatest achievements of ANR was shifting Telugu film industry from Madras to Hyderabad during 1960s. He was the first person to shift to Hyderabad and constructed Annapurna Studios. Everybody else followed him and Hyderabad became the hub of film studios thus providing employment to thousands of film artists and technicians and workers. Thus he was instrumental in making entire Jubilee Hills a posh locality. A decent human being, a highly cultured and refined man he was very kind to everybody and earned no enemies. He was a rationalist to the core and never believed in God or any sort of superstitions. He believed in himself, his hard work and discipline. He was extremely careful about selecting his roles in films and kept his health in good condition. He always advised all to eat less and live longer. He was never afraid of death. Immediately after his 90th birth day, he was bold enough to call a press conference to announce that he was suffering from cancer and wished to live 100 full years. But that was not to be.

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