Nandamuri Harikrishna: The outspoken rebel who always flew high like a phoenix

Nandamuri Harikrishna, the Telugu Desam Party leader and the son of legendary leader NT Rama Rao, died in a road accident on Wednesday morning. The actor-politician was apparently driving to Kavali in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh to attend a wedding.

Officials revealed that Nandamuri Harikrishna was driving his Toyota Fortuner (AP 28 BW 2323) when it crashed into a road median on Nalgonda Highway near Narkatpally.

Even though born in an influential and affluential political party, Nandamuri Harikrishna was widely considered an outspoken rebel within the family and party. Throughout his life, Harikrishna had taken strong stands on various issues irrespective of political affinities, and as a result, his career faced many ups and downs.

It was in the 1980s that Nandamuri Harikrishna famously drove around his father NTR for a campaign tour across Andhra Pradesh. When NTR became the Chief Minister of the state, Nandamuri Harikrishna became the kingpin of Andhra Pradesh family politics. Soon, TDP emerged as an effective alternative for Congress in the state.

In the 1990s, Nandamuri Harikrishna's political ideologies started going against the line of NT Rama Rao. During this time of family and party rebellion, Harikrishna supported N Chandrababu Naidu, his brother-in-law which later helped him emerge as the transport minister of the state from 1996 to 1999.

In 1999, Nandamuri Harikrishna started a rebellion against Chandrababu Naidu and launched Anna TDP, a new political party. Unfortunately, Anna TDP failed to win even a single seat in the legislative election, and Harikrishna alleged that Chandrababu Naidu was trying to destroy the legacy of NTR.

In the meantime, his brother Nandamuri Balakrishna, a superstar in Tollywood also started supporting Chandrababu Naidu. However, Harikrishna continued as a rebel and started fighting against the political ideologies within the family. In 2008, after solving the tiffs, Nandamuri Harikrishna was elected as the Rajya Sabha member of the Telugu Desam Party.

Nandamuri Harikrishna, who had appeared as a child actor in many movies released in the 1970s, made a strong comeback to Tollywood in 1999 with the movie 'Seetharama Raju'. The film also had Akkineni Nagarjuna in another prominent role, and it emerged as a huge hit at the box-office.

Later, he appeared in 'Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo' and 'Seetayya'; both superhits at the box-office. However, he again took a hiatus from acting due to his political involvement.

September 2 marks the 62nd birthday of Nandamuri Harikrishna. Being a humanitarian, Harikrishna had requested his fans not to celebrate the birthday, and he had expressed his desire to donate that money to the Kerala flood victims.