Nagarjuna's decision to present ANR National Award to Rajamouli raises eyebrows
A few days ago, in a hurried media conference, Akkineni Nagarjuna, announced that the ANR National Award for 2017 was being given to S.S. Rajamouli. While no one is questioning Rajamouli’s talent or his ability to take Telugu cinema to new heights, it’s the manner in which Nagarjuna has been treating this award that’s raising eyebrows.
When the much-loved Akkineni Nageswara Rao was alive, he honoured legendary people such as Dev Anand, Shabana Azmi, Vyjayanthi Mala, Anjali Devi, Lata Mangeshkar, Bala Chander, Hema Malini and Shyam Benegal. He started the award for a specific reason. “I want to live even after my death through this award. That’s why I installed the ANR Award,” ANR had said while introducing the award in 2006.
In fact, at many events, ANR had emphasised that his children would continue the award legacy after his death. But after the respectable actor’s demise in 2014, his kids have not shown much interest or taken pride in their father’s legacy.
Instead, Nagarjuna is keenly promoting his acting school — which was evident at the award’s media conference where he mainly spoke about the school instead of the award or his father!
Amitabh Bachchan was the last recipient of the ANR award. In the photo, he is seen receiving the award from Telangana Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao in 2014.
In 2013, ANR had actually announced Sridevi’s name for the award, post which he fell ill. After he passed away in January 2014, Nagarjuna surprisingly announced Amitabh Bachchan’s name for the ANR award. He even organised a big event for the award ceremony and invited Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to grace the occassion. The whole episode left every one puzzled and wondering — why was Sridevi’s name dropped?
‘The Family supports Nagarjuna’s decision’
We don’t bother about the negative comments from people. Whatever decision Nagarjuna has taken, the whole family supports it. It’s a family decision and there are many reasons why we didn’t give out the award for two years. But we have started it again with a deserving person like S.S. Rajamouli, who has put Telugu cinema on the global map. Not announcing the award for one or two years is not going to matter to my father. He knows that we are working hard and we will do our best and he will be happy. Akkineni International School of Film and Media (AISFM) and the Award, both are nanna’s (ANR) dream and that’s the reason we clubbed both of them. They go hand in hand,” says Naga Susheela.
After 2014, the family completely forgot about the ANR award. And now, a few years later, out of nowhere, Nagarjuna has announced Rajamouli’s name for the 2017 award. This raises some serious questions about the missing announcements in 2015 and 2016.
What is surprising is that despite the likes of big personalities such as K. Viswanath, K. Raghavendra Rao, Krishnam Raju, Krishna and many others, the actor announced Rajamouli’s name. Looking at the last 10 awardees, who were largely veterans — and that’s how the late ANR wanted it to be — one would think that the talented Rajamouli still has time to receive this award.
ANR had thought out everything about the future and assigned a corpus fund to be able to give away the prize money of '5 lakh. It was to be increased too periodically. As a result, there was never a need for the family to take any money from their own pocket.
Another thing Nagarjuna missed at the press conference was mentioning the prize money in his quick announcement.
When asked about the prize money, Nag said, “It will carry what we gave in the last award.” The actor did not bother to explain why the award wasn’t announced in the last two years.
Nagarjuna and his family members have failed to fulfill ANR’s dreams. The actor-turned-business entrepreneur is only looking to do good business by using late ANR’s name to promote his acting school.
