'Wanted to shift Telugu films to Hyderabad': Nagarjuna on father ANR's inspiration behind starting Annapurna Studios

Telugu superstar Nagarjuna recently revealed his father and veteran actor Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao's inspiration behind starting the Annapurna Studios located in Hyderabad. He also mentioned that in 1974, the films of all the 4 south Indian languages were being made in Chennai. 

"Well, it started in 1974, 50 years ago when the whole industry was in Chennai, all four languages were situated in Chennai. Completely all the industry. My father was a Telugu film actor and he wanted to shift Telugu films into Hyderabad at the combined Telugu state. That's when he started the studio there here and it has become one of the premier studios of the country right now," he told in a conversation with Business Today. 

He also revealed that a part of KGF was shot in the Akkineni family-owned studio and a lot of work on SS Rajamouli's blockbuster directorial RRR was also done here. 

He further mentioned that Pushpa 2 was mixed here and its post production as done there. "It's just not, we're just not producers. We have the facility itself is a facility for filmmaking." 

In another video posted last month, Nagarjuna revealed that the studio was named after his mother Annapurna as a tribute to the belief that a woman is behind the success of every man. 

During the course of the interview, he also mentioned that film industries regardless of the language need to offer people the cinema which they can relate to so that this could translate to increased theatrical footfalls. 

"If you look at the pre, post and what's the present, COVID, after COVID is, that, people have so much choice. So you want them to come to the theatre, you got them to, you got to give them right entertainment which relates to them." 

He also mentioned that even though it is difficult to figure a sure-shot answer to what kind of movies augur well with the audiences, the makers need to be true to the story that they have set out to tell.