Akkineni Nagarjuna: Lesser known facts

Superstar of Tollywood, Akkineni Nagarjuna completes 56 today. The actor, who won audiences hearts with his blockbuster hits like Siva, Boss, Mass, Manam and many more has completed almost 19 years in the Telugu film industry. His power-packed performance gave him the tag of Nag, King and Yuva Samrat of the Telugu film industry. The actor is a prominent name in the Telugu film industry, but the actor has also contributed a lot in the field of Telugu Television.
On his birthday today, let’s have a look at some of the lesser known facts about the actor...

Before fame

Akkineni Nagarjuna, who is the son of veteran actor Nageswara Rao Akkineni, completed his Bachelors of Engineering from The Little Flower Junior College. The actor also studied M.S. in Automobile Engineering from Eastern Michigan University.

Child Artist

Nagarjuna has also worked as a child artist in a Telugu film. He made his debut as a child artist in the film Sudigundalu in the year 1968.

Debut film

Superstar Nagarjuna was seen in a full-fledged role in the year 1986. The actor played his first lead role in the film Vikram. The film was directed by V. Madhusudhana Rao and also stars Shobana along with Nagarjuna in lead roles. Vikram was a hit at the box office. The film was a remake of the 1983 Bollywood film Hero which starred Jackie Shroff and Meenakshi Sheshadri in lead roles.

Family

Nagarjuna first got married to Dr D Ramanaidu's daughter, Lakshmi Daggubati in the year 1984. The couple got divorced in the year 1990. The actor has a son with his first wife named Naga Chaitanya, who is also a top Tollywood actor today. The actor then married actress Amala, his co-star of films like Siva and Prema Yuddam. They have a son named Akkineni Akhil.

Television work

In the year 2009, with the soap opera Yuva, Nagarjuna made his debut as a television producer. Apart from that, the actor is also one of the major shareholders of Maa TV, a television channel. The popular Hindi quiz game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, which was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan also had a Telugu version. Named as Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu, it was hosted by Nagarjuna.

Charity Work

Nagarjuna and his wife Amala are the co-founder of the non-government organization (NGO) Blue Cross of Hyderabad. The NGO works for the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights. The actor also undertakes welfare programmes on MAA TV. The actor is also the brand ambassador of HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and in the year 2010, Nagarjuna starred in an HIV/AIDS animated software tutorial created by TeachAID.

Work in other film industries

The actor has worked in around 90 films till date. Other than Telugu, he has also worked in Hindi and Tamil films. The actor made his Bollywood debut in the year 1990 with the film Shiva, remake of his own superhit Tollywood film Siva. Later, he also acted in several Bollywood films like Khuda Gawah, Drohi and Criminal and Tamil films like Ratchagan and Payanam.

Collaboration with Big B

The actor not only hosted the Telugu version of KBC, whose Hindi version was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, he also worked with Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan made a cameo appearance in the film Manam, which stars Nagarjuna’s legendary father, the late Akkineni Nageswara Rao. Reportedly, Nagarjuna said that Big B’s cameo in the film was an honour to his father. Also, both the actors appeared together in a 2015 commercial of Kalyan Jewellers.

Sharing screen with father and sons

Superstar Akkineni Nagarjuna shared screen space for the last time with his father Akkineni Nageswara Rao in the 2014 film Manam. The film, directed by Vikram Kumar, stars entire Nagarjuna family Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Akkineni Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya while Nagajuna’s second son, Akkineni Akhil also made a cameo appearance in the film. The film was a superhit and is Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s last film. Nagarjuna’s father Akkineni Nageswara Rao passed away on January 22, 2014.