Nagarjuna REVEALS that his father ANR tried to commit suicide, wanted to kill himself: “People ridiculed…”

Last update:November 23, 2024, 07:43 CEST

Nagarjuna says others ridiculed his father because of his “feminine” qualities.

Nagarjuna’s father ANR made his debut in 1944 with the film Sri Seeta Rama Jananam. (Photos: IMDb)

Veteran actor Nagarjuna was speaking at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Friday when he talked about his father, ANR. The actor made a shocking confession and stated that his father once tried to commit suicide and wanted to kill himself because people mocked him for his “feminine” manners.

“In those days, women weren’t allowed to be actresses or perform on stage. So he started playing female roles. First he became a hero on stage,” Nagarjuna said about his father, as quoted by the Free Press Journal.

“When fate changed, he was at the railway station when the famous producer Ghantasala Balaramayya, sitting in the train, saw him walking and said, ‘Nice eyes, nice nose.’ Would you like to act? Rest, as they say, is history,” recalls the actor.

“I clearly remember him swinging his hips. He thought it was an act because he did it on stage,” he said.

Talking about how others mocked his father for his “feminine” qualities, Nagarjuna revealed that this greatly disappointed ANR, who once even tried to commit suicide. “People made fun of him and it really depressed him. He went to Marina Beach, where he said he wanted to kill himself because there was a lot of laughter (mockery) and so on. He told me that he was waist-deep in sea water and then something inside him told him (not to do it) and he corrected himself,” Nagarjuna said.

“Someone told him that your voice gets rougher if you smoke cigars. He didn’t smoke before. He would also go to the beach early in the morning and shout into the ocean for 5-10 minutes to make his voice hoarse,” the actor added.

Nagarjuna’s father ANR made his debut in 1944 with ‘Sri Seeta Rama Jananam’. In his seven-decade career, he acted in several films including ‘Vipra Narayana’, ‘Tenali Krishna’, ‘Sri Ramadasu’, ‘LailaMajnu’ and ‘Balaraju’.