Bollywood Actors: Akkineni Nagarjuna

Akkineni Nagarjuna (Telugu: అక్కినేని నాగార్జున) is an Indian film actor in Tollywood and Bollywood, and a producer. He has won three Nandi Awards, which is presented by the government of Andhra Pradesh and regarded as the highest award for films in the state.and National Film Award for his role in Annamayya(1997).[unreliable source?] His first leading role was in 1986 film Vikram. He has starred other films including Geethanjali(1989), Shiva(1989), Hello Brother(1994), Manmadhudu(2003), Sri Ramadasu(2006) Ragada (2010) and Gaganam(2011).

Early life

Nagarjuna was born Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao on 29 September 1980 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India to actor Nageswara Rao Akkineni and Annapurna Akkineni. The family later moved to Hyderabad where he attended Hyderabad Public School, and studied his "Intermediate" from Little Flower Junior College, Hyderabad and B.E. (Mechanical) from the College of Engineering, Anna University and the University of Michigan[citation needed]. Nagarjuna completed M.S. (Automobile) from the University Of Louisiana At Lafayette .[citation needed]

Career

Tollywood

Nagarjuna acted in Sudigundalu as a child artist. The film Vikram was released on 24 May 1986. In 1989, he starred in Geethanjali, a love story directed by Maniratnam which was dubbed into Tamil. The film cemented his status as a star. In the same year, Nagarjuna followed with Shiva, an action film directed by Ram Gopal Varma which was hugely successful and has been described as a trendsetter in the Telugu film industry. He subsequently made his Bollywood debut with the Hindi remake of the same film Shiva. The film earned him Filmfare Best Actor Award. He then followed it with action films Killer and Nirnayam (1991 film) directed by Priyadarshan. President Gari Pellam was released in 1993. He followed with films, Varasudu, Gharana Bullodu, and Allari Alludu. Criminal (1994) was released as a bilingual. In 1994, he ventured into comedy for the first time with Hello Brother in which he played a dual role. It was later remade into Hindi as Judwaa. Hello Brother was also dubbed into Tamil. In 1996, Nagarjuna starred in & produced Ninne Pelladatha, which was directed by Krishna Vamsi. Later, Nagarjuna portrayed Annamacharya, the 15th-century Telugu singer and poet, in Annamayya (film) which won him third Filmfare Best Actor Award and his first Nandi Award for Best Actor. In 2000, Nagarjuna starred in Nuvvu Vastavani. His subsequent films that year were Ninne Premistha and Azad (film). He starred in the romantic comedies Santhosham, Manmadhudu, and Shivamani..

He produced Satyam in 2003, starring his nephew Sumanth.

In 2004, Nagarjuna had two releases- Nennunnanu and Mass. Mass was produced by Nagarjuna and directed by choreographer Raghava Lawrence. In 2005, Nagarjuna acted in and produced Super. In 2006, Nag starred in Sri Ramadasu, his second period film based on the 18th-century Telugu composer of the same name.Nagarjuna received the Nandi Award for best actor that year. In December 2007 he appeared in Don. An year later, he appeared in King alongside Trisha Krishnan & Srihari. In February 2010, he appeared as Rummy in Kedi and in December 2010 he appeared in Ragada. His latest film Gaganam was released on Feb 11th 2011. Its Tamil version is Payanam.

Philanthropic work

Nagarjuna, with his wife Amala, is the co-founder of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, a non-government organization (NGO) in Hyderabad, India, which works towards the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights. He is also involved in some of the welfare programs undertaken by the MAA TV association.

In 2010, he starred in an HIV/AIDS animated software tutorial created by TeachAIDS, a nonprofit founded at Stanford University.

Akkineni Nagarjuna