Akkineni Nagarjuna, the huge superstar of Tollywood celebrates his birthday today. He was born into a family that was already associated with making movies. And that is why he made his foray into the film industry when he was just an infant. His legacy is now being taken ahead by his two sons Naga Chaitanya and Akhil Akkineni.
He has been one of the pillars of Tollywood for many decades now. As he turns 64 today, know more about this legendary Telugu superstar.
Made his debut when he was of 8 months
When Nagarjuna was born his father was working on the movie Velugu Needalu. They needed a newlyborn child for a particular scene. That is when his father Akkineni Nageshwara Rao thought of taking his 8-month-old son on the sets and thus Nagarjuna made his first appearance on the silver screen during his infancy.
Later on, he started his official journey in the film industry as a child artist with his father’s movie when he was 6 years old.
Introduced many new Tollywood directors
Nagarjuna has introduced many new Tollywood directors to the regional film industry who later on became big names. It includes names like YVS Chowdary, Ram Gopal Varma, JK Bharavi, Raghava Lawrence, Rahul Ravindran, Dasaradh, and Kalyan Krishna Kurasala.
Introduced legendary directors into the Telugu film industry
The Tollywood superstar always has collaborated with some of the best in business and introduced some big names to the Telugu film industry. He introduced Malayalam director Farzil with Killer, Tamil director Mani Ratnam with Geethanjali, and Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt with Criminal into Tollywood.
Gave a break to Baahubali writer
KV Vijayendra Prasad, the father of SS Rajamouli who has written scripts for legendary hits like Bajrangi Bhaijan and Baahubali, received his first break with Nagarjuna’s movie Janaki Rumudu released in 1988.
Brought new faces in Tollywood
Apart from introducing his son Akhil Akkineni to the Telugu film industry Nagarjuna also was the man behind the debut of actors like Sumanth Yarlagadda, and Roshan Meka. He also introduced other established regional actors like Girish Karnad and Ravichandran to Tollywood.