'He Was The Most Complete Human Being I Know'

'Outside the house, he was this iconic deified figure.'
'Inside, he was a sorted-out, genial householder, always ready to lend a patient ear to our problems.'

"Even if he was not recognised by someone as an actor, my father still commanded the same respect. He carried his aura way beyond the screen," Nagarjuna tells Subhash K Jha about his legendary father Akkineni Nageswara Rao.

As ANR's birth centenary falls on September 20, PVR INOX is hosting a film festival to celebrate the icon and his movies.

"My father has a legendary reputation in Andhra and Telangana. I had to live up to his name. Now my sons have to live to not only my father's name but also mine. It's a tough call," Nag adds.

Nag, I remember your father's demise on January 22, 2014 vividly.

He hadn't prepared us for his going, although he had cancer.

On the other hand, maybe he did let us know in his own way that the end was near.

On his 90th birthday, he had decided to call all his friends and family from India and abroad, around 2,000 people.

I think he had a premonition.

There were 200 tables at his birthday dinner. He went to each and every table to talk to all his friends.

He made an hour-long speech, which we fortunately recorded. It's the only biographical life-sketch we have of him. We intend to make it public.

You idolised him, didn't you?

You bet! Right from my childhood, I looked at him with awe. When we went out together, the respect he commanded was visible even to a child.

Even if he was not recognised by someone as an actor, my father still commanded the same respect.

He carried his aura way beyond the screen.

At home, he was a complete husband, father and grandfather. He was the most complete human being I know.

I connected with him like any son does to his father.

Outside the house, he was this iconic deified figure. Inside, he was a sorted-out, genial householder, always ready to lend a patient ear to our problems.

He didn't play favorites in the family.

He had a super innings as an actor.

He enjoyed acting until the 1970s and 1980s. Then just when I came in as a leading man, Indian cinema become mongrelised, Westernised and corrupted.

My father didn't like it at all.

He would ask, 'Why does our cinema need to ape the West? Our culture and heritage are so rich. Why do you need to change that?'

I would argue back, saying, 'We had to give the audience what they wanted.'

He would counter-argue saying, 'Look at the Chinese, Koreans. Their cinema preserves their language and culture. They are global leaders.'

Once when I made a film, I wanted to send it to international film festivals after cutting the songs.

My father was aghast.

'Why are you cutting out your culture?' he asked.

I listened to him and kept the songs.

Even when he stopped acting, he kept abreast of what was happening in Telugu cinema.

In his later years, he continued to watch all the films. He would comment only on the acting as acting was his first love.

He saw no logic in my action scenes.

Sometimes we would try to find fault with him and end up stonewalled and angry because we couldn't find a single fault.

The illness must have shattered the family.

When he was diagnosed with cancer, he gave us the strength and courage to face the impending tragedy.

He taught us to deal with it.

He fought the disease as long as he could. He was on the sets of our family film Manam when he collapsed.

When they opened him up, he was in the fifth stage of cancer.

Until then, he was in the pink of health. The film spans a period from 1920 to 2013.

My father plays a 90 year old. Except that incomplete song, he completed all the shooting.

Fifteen days after surgery, he was at home in bed when he said, 'Bring all the dubbing equipment and do my dubbing for Manam before I get worse or you will get a mimicry artiste to do my dubbing.'

He made sure we he completed the film.

He developed a pain at the end.

We took him to the hospital and for the first time, he had to be given painkillers. The doctor warned us that it was the beginning of the end.

We were told he had two months more and that his condition would get very bad. He said he wanted to go home.

That night (January 21), he called all of us to gather around him. At around 9.30 pm, he asked us to go home. That night he passed away.

Thousands of people came.

We had to shut the gates, but they kept on coming.

Your son Naga Chaitanya played your father in the film.

To see my son playing my father is an experience I can't put into words.

I think it made a deep emotional connect with the audiences in Andhra and Telangana.

My son doesn't resemble my father at all. But it's an emotional experience of watching the connection being made over the generations that has worked for the audience.

My father has a legendary reputation in Andhra and Telangana. I had to live up to his name.

Now my sons have to live to not only my father's name, but also mine. It's a tough call. Both are doing their best.

I can only do what any father can do to help them. The rest is destiny.

He literally passed away with his boots on. Now that they are having this richly deserved festival of his films, we're very happy.

We didn't have the negatives of all his films. Fortunately, the National Film Archive had restored some of them.

They are doing fantastic work, not just with my father's films, but all the legendary ones.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of the Film Heritage Foundation, is doing such an amazing job of restoring the classics of Indian cinema.

Yes. He was instrumental in restoring the prints of my father's classics which I didn't have access to.

They want the younger generation to know where cinema came from.

As a child, did you watch any of these classics?

Of course. We watched all these films. But somewhere along the way, we lost them, sadly.

What the Film Heritage Foundation and PVR INOX are doing is truly commendable.

The festival in Hyderabad will start with Devadasu, the original Devdas.

My father was the first one to do it.

On September 20, at 6pm, the whole family will all be there at the theatre.

We are 19 of us, including the grandchildren.

Three generations of actors dedicated to the Indian film industry. How does that make you feel?

It feels very, very, good.

We wouldn't be where we are without my father's blessings. My sons also feel that way. We are so proud.

My father had instituted the Annapurna Studios in 1974 in Hyderabad.

Before that, there was no film industry in Hyderabad. Now, the film industry is thriving here.

The whole ecosystem is set up.

I feel it's only because of this one man who started this.

His fans will get a chance to walk down memory lane through this festival.

We will have fans from all over. Senior fans who are 75, 80 years old. They are coming from all over India.

Our family is going to have lunch with them.

The celebrations will go on.

My father had a dream of film education, so we have started the Annapurna College of Film and Media. We have over 300 students. They are doing skits and shows on their films.

This is like the Telugu version of the Raj Kapoor family.

When I look at Raj Kapoorji's family history, and his filmography, it's incredible what he has done.

A book on my father is also being released to familiarise my father's work over India.