May 28, 2023, is an important milestone in the contemporary political and cultural history of the Telugu land, now split into two states – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It marks the birth centenary of legendary actor, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder-president and former chief minister of erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR.
A demi-god in the Telugu film industry for almost three and a half decades, from 1949 to 1982, to a man of the masses who left an indelible mark on Andhra politics for another decade and a half – NTR’s power over the Telugu people extended to nearly half a century during his lifetime.
NTR died at the age of 73, following a massive heart attack on January 18, 1996. Yet, 27 years later, he remains relevant in Andhra Pradesh politics. Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which he had founded in March 1982 as a party to uphold the self-respect of Telugus, still has a strong cadre-base under the leadership of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who married NTR’s daughter, Bhuvaneshwari, in 1980.
Different parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been witness to NTR’s birth centenary celebrations over the last year. Most recently, a celebration was held on May 23 and it was attended by leaders from various political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Communist Party of India (CPI) apart from celebrities from Telugu film industry like Ram Charan, Jayaprada and Jayasudha. NTR’s grandson, Junior NTR (known best for the film, RRR that won an Oscar earlier this year for Best Song), however, skipped the event.
“The Google-savvy new generation of voters only know of Junior NTR, star of the blockbuster film ‘RRR’, but for millions of Telugu people, NTR is a name which is still difficult to forget, as they continue to benefit from the welfare schemes he had introduced like subsidised rice scheme and pucca houses,” said veteran journalist and political analyst Bhandaru Srinivasa Rao.
Demi-god status NTR’s rise as a film star coincided with an increasing popularity of the cinematic medium. While he played a wide variety of characters in films of all genres — social, socio-fantasy, folklore and mythological — it was his repeated portrayal of Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu and Lord Rama that made him tremendously popular among the masses.
In his tome on Indian cinema, ‘So Many Cinemas, The Motion Picture in India’, film historian BD Garga wrote about the profound changes that our newly-independent country was going through in the 1950s. An accelerated pace of industrialisation brought not only a higher rate of employment than the previous decades, but also more leisure time for the worker. As a result, more cinema houses came up in towns and ‘touring talkies’ began to tour remote corners of the country, reaching the half million villages that formed a massive domestic market. By 1960, the production of films peaked at 318 over the preceding years.
Yet, the film industry was beset with problems: high taxation, soaring star fees, and more worryingly, censorship. As common men and women made their displeasure known about the corrupting influence of cinema — in 1954 a petition signed by 13,000 housewives was presented to the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, alleging that cinema posed a threat to the “moral health of the country” — producers were certainly incentivised to turn to mythology as narrative framework within which they could safely situate their spectacular productions.
NTR immortalised the character of Lord Krishna, a role which he had played in as many as 17 films. “People do not know how Lord Krishna really looked like, but whenever they close their eyes to worship the god, only NTR’s image appears before them,” said Nandamuri Lakshmi Parvathi, the second wife of NTR who married him in 1993, eight years after the death of his first wife Basava Tarakam.
Such was his aura when he played the role of gods that when he first stepped into the sets of Vijaya-Vauhini Studios in Chennai in 1956, donning for the first time the garb of Krishna in the epic ‘Maya Bazaar’, crew members touched his feet, broke coconuts in front of him and offered aarti.
Retired IAS officer K Lakshminarayana, who co-wrote ‘NTR, A Biography’ noted in the book that pilgrims returning from Tirumala would go to Chennai for a darshan of NTR, who played Lord Venkateshwara of Tirumala in the film ‘Sri Venkateswara Mahatmyam’ in 1960.
NTR was a versatile actor. He also played villainous mythological roles like Ravana, Duryodhana and even Keechaka, besides others like Bhishma, Karna and Vishwamitra. He even played Brihannala, a transgender character in the epic, ‘Mahabharata’. In fact, in the 1977 film, ‘Dana Veera Sura Karna’, NTR acted in three different roles with aplomb: Duryodhana (villain), Karna (hero) and Lord Krishna (sage).
His contemporaries included the likes of Akkineni Nageshwara Rao, S V Ranga Rao and Gummadi, who also received much acclaim and acted in mythological roles. However, none of them had the sort of following NTR did. NTR, who began on a monthly salary of ₹1,000 for Vijaya Productions, reigned supreme and was often paired with popular actresses Savithri, Jamuna, Krishna Kumari and Devika.
“In all, NTR acted in more than 300 films and more than 80 per cent of his films were super hits,” Lakshminarayana said.
A revolution in politics In 1982, NTR made a dramatic entry into politics. He was 60 years old.
He revealed his plans to enter politics at a press conference in the Ramakrishna Cine Studios in Hyderabad on March 21. Exactly eight days later, NTR announced the launch of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on the lawns of New MLA Quarters. Senior politician Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, who had by then resigned from the Congress party, joined hands with the actor.
“Addressing a few hundred people to explain to them about his decision to enter politics, NTR suddenly took out a piece of paper from his pocket and announced the name of his party – Telugu Desam,” recalled senior journalist Bandaru Srinivasa Rao, who was working for All India Radio at the time.
It was a surprise for everybody, because NTR had not even applied to the Election Commission of India to register his political party.
The main political plank of the TDP was the self-respect of Telugus. The apparent humiliation meted out to former Andhra Pradesh chief minister T Anjaiah by Rajiv Gandhi, the then general secretary of the Congress party reportedly triggered his decision. The previous month, Anjaiah had gone to receive Gandhi at the airport tarmac with hundreds of Youth Congress workers. Gandhi, a trained pilot, was reportedly irked by the safety breach and allegedly shouted at the CM.
“NTR felt that the national party was treating its chief ministers as doormats. Telugus had no identity of their own and had been reduced to being care-of-Madras. He wanted to awaken them and arouse them,” said journalist-author Ramesh Kandula in his book, ‘Maverick Messiah’.
“Many people, including experienced Congress leaders brushed him aside as a non-serious candidate and the people were more enthusiastic because of his filmy glamour and nothing more,” Kandula said.
But NTR proved all of them wrong. Between June 1982 and January 1983, he toured the length and breadth of the state on his chaitanya ratham, a remodelled Chevrolet van, driven by his son N Harikrishna. He drew crowds of tens of thousands to his road-side meetings and most were charmed by his oratory and dramatic appeal, calling upon them to fight for their self-respect.
According to Lakshminarayana, NTR transformed from a mass hero in films to a mass leader in politics by announcing several schemes like ₹2 a kg rice and pucca houses for the poor. Under his leadership, the TDP swept to power in the January 1983 elections with a massive mandate – winning 201 seats in the 294-member assembly. NTR took over as the first non-Congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh on January 9, 1983.
During his 13-year-long journey in politics, NTR faced several ups and downs. Within 18 months of coming to power, his colleague Nadendla Bhaskar Rao usurped power with the support of the then governor at the behest of Indira Gandhi.
NTR fought back despite his by-then fragile health. He launched a crusade against the undemocratic attitude of the Congress and travelled to different parts of the state. With a majority of the MLAs backing NTR, Bhaskar Rao failed to prove his majority within a month and had to step down, paving the way for the return of NTR to power again.
According to Kandula, the first time that NTR grabbed national attention and entered into confrontation with the Centre was when he walked out of a National Development Council (NDC) meeting to protest the dismissal of the Farooq Abdullah government in Jammu & Kashmir. Abdullah’s government was dismissed on the grounds that it had lost majority due to the defection of 12 members of National Conference to the Congress.
“He did not give any clue to his officials about his plan to deviate from the prepared draft and deliver a political speech at the meeting. That angered Indira Gandhi which ultimately led to his ouster from power,” he said.
Between 1985 and 1989, NTR took several landmark decisions, some of them proved controversial. He did away with the hierarchical patwari system (village revenue officers) and reduced the age of retirement of state government employees from 58 years to 55 years, which resulted in premature retirement of 30,000 employees. He lost power in the early elections to the state assembly held in 1989.
Between 1989 and 1994, NTR focussed on building his national image by playing a key role in the formation of National Front, a coalition of non-Congress parties which included the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Asom Gana Parishad. It also had the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party on one side and the Left front on the other.
The final years In 1993, eight years after his first wife died due to cancer, NTR married Lakshmi Parvathi. Her entry into NTR’s life led to a rift between him and his family members, particularly his son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu, who went on to become the CM of undivided AP in 1995.
The rift within the family and the party widened after NTR returned to power for a third term after the December 1994 assembly elections. Naidu, who was wary of Lakshmi Parvathi’s attempts to grab power, engineered a coup against NTR in August 1995 and dethroned his own father-in-law.
NTR tried to resist the revolt, but was powerless as Naidu successfully lured the majority of the TDP MLAs – 191 out of the 219 who won in 1994. Naidu took over the party and became the chief minister on September 1, 1995. Within four months, NTR passed away. He was 73.
The rift within the family and the party widened after NTR returned to power for a third term after the December 1994 assembly elections. Chandrababu Naidu, who was wary of NTR’s second wife, Lakshmi Parvathi, engineered a coup in August 1995 and dethroned his own father-in-law.
Of his eight sons and four daughters, three went on to have successful political careers but not all of them stayed within the party he launched. Nandamuri Harikrishna served as a Rajya Sabha member and a minister in Naidu’s cabinet. Daggubati Purandeshwari was an MP and former Union minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet but is currently the BJP national general secretary. Nandamuri Balakrishna, a popular actor in Telugu film industry, also served as a three-time MLA from Hindupur assembly constituency in Anantapur district.
By holding NTR’s centenary celebrations in a big way, Naidu hopes to seek the support of his fan base in the forthcoming elections in Andhra Pradesh.
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