Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao(born August 29, 1959 in Chennai, India), often known as Nagarjuna, is a popular Telugu Cinema actor and a successful producer. He is the son of veteran actor, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who was an actor in the 1960s and 1970s.
Nagarjuna was born to Telugu cinema star Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Smt Annapurna. Nagarjuna did his schooling at Hyderabad Public School and later went to Little Flower Junior College. He finished his BE in Anna University {then known as Guindy College of Engineering}. After that, he went on to do Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and later got a masters degree in Automobile engineering at San Jose State University.He was first married to Lakshmi, the daughter of Ramanaidu (she is the younger sister of actor Venkatesh ) in his early twenties and they both divorced later. They have a son Naga Chaitanya. He then married Amala who was then a popular actress in Tamil and Telugu film industries. They have a son Akhil who has acted in Sisindri along with Nagarjuna.
His first movie Vikramreleased on May 23, 1986 was a remake of the Hindi film Hero. After acting in four films, he acted in Majnu as a tragedy hero; similar roles were known to be his father's forte. He acted with his father in the movie Collectorgari Abbayi. His first big hit was Akhari Poraatam co-starring Sridevi that ran for 100 days in 12 centers. Geethanjali a love story directed by Maniratnam followed by Shiva an action film directed by Ram Gopal Varma were highly successful and established him as one of the top heroes. He was known for encouraging new directors such as Ram Gopal Varma by giving them a chance to make movies with him. He also made his Bollywood debut with the Hindi remake of Shiva. Movies such as President Gari Pellam and Hello Brother gave him the status of a mass hero. After that, Ninne Pelladutha directed by Krishna Vamsi followed and was a huge hit. Later, he took up the challenge of portraying Annamacharya, the legendary singer/poet of medieval times in the movie Annamayya It ran for 100 days in 42 centers and is one of the biggest hits in Tollywood. He won the National Award for this role in Special Jury. He is the only actor in Tollywood to receive this award.
In 2004, Nagarjuna had two releases, Nenunnanu and Mass, the latter going on to become a hit.In 2005, Nagarjuna had one release, Super. Super didn't reach up to the exceptations. In 2006, Nagarjuna had two releases, Sri Ramadasu, a period film based on the life of great saint-composer Ramadasu, directed by K. Raghavendra Rao, and Boss, I Love You. Sri Ramadasu was a big hit at box office however Boss, I Love You was a fl