20 September 2024
Hyderabad

Megastar Chiranjeevi will be honoured with the prestigious Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) National Award for the year 2024. This was announced by Akkineni Nagarjuna at an event in Hyderabad on Friday.

“This year, we’ve decided to give the ANR National award to Chiranjeevi garu,” Nag said amid applause from his family. “When we conveyed this to Chiranjeevi garu, he happily and emotionally hugged us almost. He expressed his happiness on being conferred the award in the centenary year of ANR. ‘I’m so happy. There’s no bigger award than this,’ Chiranjeevi garu said.”

Nag further said that Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan will be presenting the award to Chiranjeevi on October 28 most probably in Hyderabad.

Chiranjeevi, who began his career in 1978 with Punadhirallu, went on to do over 150 films in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. Some of his most popular films in a rich oeuvre include Khaidi, Swayam Krushi, Challenge, Vijetha, Rudraveena, State Rowdy, Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari, Mutamestri, Gangleader, Hitler, Tagore, Indra and Khaidi No 150. He bagged the prestigious Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, three Nandis, and nine Filmfare Telugu awards. For his contributions to Indian cinema, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, in 2006 and the Padma Vibhushan, in 2024 from the Government of India, as well as the IFFI Indian Film Personality of the Year Award in 2022.

The ANR award was instituted in 2005 by the Akkineni International Foundation with an intent to recognise the contribution of stalwarts to the Indian film industry. The first to be chosen for the award was Dev Anand (2005), followed by Shabana Azmi in 2006, Anjali Devi in 2007, Vyjayantimala Bali in 2008, Lata Mangeshkar in 2009, K Balachander in 2010 and Hema Malini in 2011. The likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Shyam Benegal, Gudipoodi Srihari, SS Rajamouli, Sridevi and Rekha were also feted with the award last decade. The award was put on pause mode after 2019.