Akkineni Nagarjuna was born on 29-08-1959 in Chennai. He is a well-known Indian Film & Television Actor, Producer, Businessman and a Philanthropist. He has worked predominantly the Telugu film industry. He is the son of famous Telugu star Nageswara Rao Akkineni who is a very respected actor having successfully done multiple films through the last four and half decades. He studied at Hyderabad Public School and later acquired a Bachelor’s degree and an M.S. in Automobile Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, and the Eastern Michigan University respectively.
Here are some interesting facts about evergreen Telugu star Nagarjuna.
1. He started his career in the entertainment industry in 1967 by starring the Telugu film Sudigundalu. His father, the iconic Nageswara Rao Akkineni, also known as NRA, played the lead in the film.
2. Nagarjuna first got married to Dr D Ramanaidu’s daughter, Lakshmi Daggubati in the year 1984. The couple got divorced in the year 1990. The actor has a son with his first wife named Naga Chaitanya, who is also a top Tollywood actor today. The actor then married actress Amala, his co-star of films like Siva and Prema Yuddam. They have a son named Akkineni Akhil.
3. Nagarjuna studies one year of his Bachelor of Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University. After which he went on to complete his education in B.S. in Automobile Engineering from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
4. In the year 2009, with the soap opera Yuva, Nagarjuna made his debut as a television producer. Apart from that, the actor is also one of the major shareholders of Maa TV, a television channel. The popular Hindi quiz game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, which was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan also had a Telugu version. Named as Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu, it was hosted by Nagarjuna.
5. Before the death of NRA in 2014, Nagarjuna had the chance to share the screen with him and his son Naga Chaitanya. The three came in the film Manam in 2014. In fact, the film also starred his daughter-in-law Samantha and younger son Akhil.
6. Nagarjuna and his wife Amala are the co-founder of the non-government organization (NGO) Blue Cross of Hyderabad. The NGO works for the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights. The actor also undertakes welfare programmes on MAA TV. The actor is also the brand ambassador of HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and in the year 2010, Nagarjuna starred in an HIV/AIDS animated software tutorial created by TeachAID.
7. The Telugu version of KBC, which is hosted by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu was hosted by Nagarjuna.
8. The actor has worked in around 90 films till date. Other than Telugu, he has also worked in Hindi and Tamil films. The actor made his Bollywood debut in the year 1990 with the film Shiva, remake of his own superhit Tollywood film Siva. Later, he also acted in several Bollywood films like Khuda Gawah, Drohi and Criminal and Tamil films like Ratchagan and Payanam.
9. He is co-founder a non-government organization (NGO) which goes by the name Blue Cross of Hyderabad. The NGO works for the welfare of animals and defends animal rights, a cause Nagarjuna is close to.
10. The superstar has worked in almost 90 films up till now, of which 13 have been Bollywood films.
