Nagarjuna on the film festival to be held on his legendary father Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s centenary, “The whole family will be at the theatre. We are 19 of us” : Bollywood News

The centenary of the legendary Akkineni Nageswara Rao falls on September 20. To honour him, his son and superstar Nagarjuna and family are coming up with a film festival. In an interview with us, Nagarjuna speaks fondly and emotionally about his late father.

Nagarjuna on the film festival to be held on his legendary father Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s centenary, “The whole family will be at the theatre. We are 19 of us”

Nag, I remember your father’s demise on 22 January, 2014 vividly
He hadn't really 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, the previous September he 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, some of them from America. He made an hour-long speech, which we fortunately recorded. It’s the only biographical life-sketch we have of him. We now intend to make it public.

You idolized 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 recognized 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. And yet, I connected with him like any son does to his father. Outside the house he was this iconic deified figure. Inside the house, he was a sorted-out, genial householder always ready to lend a patient ear to our problems. He didn’t play favourites in the family.

He had a super innings as an actor also
As an actor he enjoyed acting until the 1970s and 80s. Then just when I came in as a leading man, Indian cinema become mongrelized, Westernized 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 argued 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’re 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 very 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 up to 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.

When he knew he was losing the battle with the disease. He closed his eyes and surrendered to death. 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 all of us to go home. That night he passed away. Thousands of people came. We had to shut the gates after more people couldn’t come into the house. They kept on coming. My father had a very sharp sixth sense. He perhaps knew the end was near. He completed all the important portions of the film. Whatever remained was not crucial to the plot.

Your son Naga Chaitanya played your father
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 (my sons) are doing their best. I can only do what any father can do to help them. The rest is destiny.

Nag, I remember having a long conversation with you about your illustrious father when he had passed away while shooting with you for Manam

And, you know, he literally passed away with his boots on. Now that they're having this richly deserved festival of his films, we're very happy. We've been wanting to have a festival. But then we reached out to the National Film Archive and to find some, because we really didn't have all the negatives, all the films. Fortunately, National Film Archive had restored some of them. That's wonderful, truly good work. We need more of that. They're doing fantastic work, not just with my father's films, but all the legendary ones. And the minute we reached out there was Shivendra Singh (Dungarpur), the director of the Film Heritage Foundation.

He is doing such an amazing job of restoring the classics of Indian cinema, including your father’s films

Yes, yes! Amazing. He was instrumental in restoring the prints of my father’s classics, which even I didn’t have access to. And now they're screening them all over India in 72 cities. I think they're doing that for everybody in the sense they want the younger generation to know where cinema came from.

Yes, yes, yes. It's high time the newer generation got to know about actors who are not with us any longer

Yes. Because the sense of history is completely lost. Yeah, and how cinema evolved, especially for cinema lovers. It's very nice to see how cinema evolved into what it is today from there and all of that.

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

Of course, all these films were there. We had watched all these films. And somewhere along the way, we lost them. Sadly. What the Film Heritage Foundation and PVR INOX are doing is truly commendable. We're going to launch the festival here in Hyderabad, we're going to start off with Devadasu. Devdas, the original Devdas. My father was the first one to do it, actually. It was a feather in his cap, the Devdas production. So, we're going to start the festival in Hyderabad with Devadasu. And the I & B ministry is also involved in it. It's a historic moment. 20 September is my father's birthday. So at 6 pm we will all be there. The whole family will be at the theatre. We are nineteen of us, including the grandchildren.

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

It feels very, very good. And I'm most willing to tell you, we wouldn’t be where we are without my father’s blessings. Both my sons also feel that way. We're so proud, actually.

My father had instituted the Annapurna Studios in 1974 in Hyderabad. Before that there was nothing, there was no film industry in Hyderabad. And now the film industry is thriving here. And you know what kind of films are coming out of Hyderabad now. And the whole industry, the whole ecosystem is set up. I feel it's only because of this one man who started this. Who took this step.

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

On the 20th, we have all the fans from all over. Senior fans who are 75, 80 years old. 82, 83. They're all coming from all over India. Our family is going to have lunch with them.

The celebrations will go on. And Annapurna, he had a dream of film education. So, we have started the Annapurna College of Film and Media. So all the students, we have over 300 students. They're doing skits on their films and shows on their films. It's starting last week actually.

What an honour it is for Indian cinema to have a family like you. I mean, it's almost like the Telugu version of the Raj Kapoor family

Yes, yes, yes. When I look at Raj Kapoor ji's family history, and all his filmography actually. It's incredible what he has done. And this book on my father is being released also. Somebody has written a book in Hindi on my father. This gentleman wanted to familiarize my father’s work over India.

Also Read: Nagarjuna’s father Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s 100th birth anniversary to be celebrated in a grand way with 10 re-releases in September across 25 cities