M Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of India, honoured Baahubali director SS Rajamouli with the ANR National Award for his contribution to the Telugu Film Industry and inspiring new generation of filmmakers on Sunday.
Akkineni Nagarjuna, the son of late legendry actor Nageswara Rao fondly known as ANR, held a grand function in Hyderabad. Along with M Venkaiah Naidu, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao attended the award event, which witnessed the presence of entire Akkineni Family, well known personalities from the film industry and students of AISFM.
Addressing the ANR award ceremony, K Chandrashekar Rao recited lyrics from old songs from Dr ANR's films. The CM of Telangana said, "The doyen of Telugu film industry Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao left a lasting impression for many generations as he immortalised many films across social, romantic and mythological genres."
K Chandrashekar Rao also praised SS Rajamouli for putting the Telugu cinema in the world map. He said that he enjoyed watching Bahubali: The Beginning first in Hindi and then in Telugu.
In his acceptance speech, SS Rajamouli said, "Though I don't feel I deserve this exemplary award, I feel it gives me power and wings to fly. It is a huge burden, it certainly inspire me to work harder. I will certainly continue to work harder and try to worthy of this award started by great ANR."
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu described Mr. Rajamouli as "One of the most creative, innovative and inspiring film-maker. You deserved the award because you are Baahubali. You film all elements that makes you feel happy and proud of Indian cinema. Felicitation is to provide inspiration and to inspire people. It is a memorable moment for me to present evergreen ANR award today."
In his address, Nagarjuna also lauded Rajamouli's contributions to expand the vistas of the Telugu Film Industry. He came up with universally appealing content and inspired new film makers to break new creative boundaries. The choice of Rajamouli for the award would definitely make Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao happy and proud, he added.
At Dr ANR National award function, 95 students of Annapurna International School of Film and Media ( AISFM ) were honoured with their degrees.
ANR award was instituted in 2005 by the Akkineni International Foundation with an aim to recognise the contributions of stalwarts to the Indian film industry. Dev Anand, Shabana Azmi, Anjali Devi, Vyjayantimala Bali, Lata Mangeshkar, K. Balachander, Hemamalini, Shyam Benegal and Amitabh Bachchan were given this honour. Rajamouli is the 10th recipient of the award which carries a memento, a citation and a cash prize.
