Early life:
Akkineni Nageswara Rao was an economic man. He made sure all of his movies were shot in Hyderabad during 1963. To provide infrastructural support to the film industry in Hyderabad, he built a film studio, Annapurna Studios, in 1975. He also started a film and media school, Annapurna International School of Film and Media within Annapurna Studios in 2011.
Career Highlights:
Nageswara Rao made his debut in the Telugu film, Dharmapatni, in 1941, at the age of 17. He has since, acted in over 255 films, spanning from Telugu and Tamil, to Hindi languages and hence became one of the most prominent figures in the history of Telugu cinema. His collection of movies include, Daddy Daddy (1998), Pelli Sambandham (2000), Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006) and Manam (2014). His upcoming movie, Thrayam, is set to release in 2015.
Death:
On 19 October 2013 Rao announced that he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He shot his final film Manam, in 2014. Rao died in his sleep on 22 January 2014 due to a cardiac arrest.