Actress Samantha Akkineni, the daughter-in-law of Akkineni Nagarjuna, was missing from the ANR (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) National Awards – 2019, where late Bollywood actress Sridevi and Rekha were honoured for their contribution to Indian cinema.
The ANR National Award was instituted by the Akkineni International Foundation in 2006 in honour of Akkineni Nageswara Rao. The award is presented annually to recognize people for their contributions to the Indian film industry. Akkineni family announced on November 14 that late actress Sridevi B Kapoor and Rekha were the winners of the 2019's awards and megastar Chiranjeevi would honour them at a grand ceremony on November 17.
Annapurna Studios tweeted on November 14, "The ANR awards for the year 2018 & 2019 were announced today. Late Sridevi B Kapoor & Ms Rekha will be awarded at a ceremony on Nov 17th. Mr. Chiranjeevi Garu will attend as a special guest for the occasion. @acfmofficial third convocation will follow the ceremony."
The ANR National Award is one of the biggest family occasions for the Akkinenis and all the family members make sure they attend the event. Like every year, the family organized a grand award ceremony to honour the winners and Chiranjeevi, Vijay Devarakonda, Boney Kapoor and many other celebs attended it. All the members of the Akkineni family were present there except Samantha.
Many fans were excited to see Samantha Akkineni at the ANR National Awards 2019. A fan had written, "If there is any good in the #ANRawards function it is the arrival of #Samantha. We don't have the patience to look at the poor dresses that make us sit at home. #NAG #Chay #Akhil."
The Akkinenis live-streamed the ANR National Award 2019's ceremony on the YouTube channel of Annapurna Studios. But many fans were disappointed to see Samantha's absence at this grand gala event. Some of them wonder what could be the reason for the wife of Naga Chaitanya to skip such a beautiful occasion, which is the pride of her family.
Samantha busy with The Family Man
Sources from the industry claim that Samantha Akkineni is busy filming for The Family Man, which is currently being shot in London. The actress left for London a week ago and will be there for a few more days. This is why she could not make it to the ANR National Award 2019.
Samantha Akkineni is very active on social media, where she enjoys a huge fan following. Her fans expected more activity from Samantha on social media, as it would help ANR National Award 2019 reach more people. But little she spoke little of the event. She shared a photo of the event on her Instagram story and wrote, "Missed today's #anrawards2019." Her fans were upset because this Instagram story would vanish in some hours.
She was active on Twitter on Sunday and wished director Premkumar. But she stayed away from talking about ANR National Award 2019. She tweeted, "Wishing my dear director @Premkumar1710 a very happy birthday .. it's your time and it's going to be your time for a long time .. Thankyou for recreating the magic. #Janu."
Watch the live streaming of ANR National Award 2019:
