Akkineni Nageswara Rao National Award 2012 Presentation Ceremony

This year’s Akkineni Nageswara Rao National Award was given away to Bollywood’s most prominent filmmaker Shyam Benegal. The award function took place on Saturday evening at N-Convention Centre in Madhapur, Hyderabad. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy honoured the director cum producer with the award, T Subbarami Reddy presented him the memento certificate, Venkat Akkineni falicitated him with a garland, Nagarjuna with the shawl and Central Minister Manish Tiwari presented him a cheque of Rs 5 lakhs/-.

Later addressing the gathering Shyam Benegal said, “The maximum number of films being made in India is in Telugu of late. Hyderabad is the city capital for Indian film industry. This is my home town. During my youthful days, I remember people rubbished away when I conveyed my wish to make movies. Akkineni Nageswara Rao played key role in shifting the Telugu film industry from Chennai to Hyderabad. He loves his studio a lot and used to work hard for his studio keeping aside his star status. I even witnessed it once. I met him for the first time when I needed a crane. He is the son of film industry. I’m very happy to note that Telugu movies are in demand in US where there are lot of Telugu people. I feel very proud to receive this award.”

Akkineni Nageswara Rao said, “The Telugu film industry raised me for 75 years. I believe in increasing my life span with the happiness of the people. That’s the reason I seek the blessings of the Telugu audience. I got the idea of giving away this award when I received the Dadasaheb Phalke award. Therefore I gathered the needed amount before implementing this award. The prominent members of this trust are T Subbarami Reddy, D Ramanaidu and Boni Kapoor. They are the ones who select every year award winner. I’m very happy to honor this award to Shyam Benegal who served Indian cinema by all means.”

Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy said, “I studied in Nizam college where Shyam Benegal too studied. I used to watch his films during those days. I still remember the themes of his social oriented films. I’m very happy to present the award to him today. It would be nice if Akkineni family members reveal the secret of their young appearance.”

Nagarjuna said, “CM Kiran is my junior in school but I never knew he would become a CM one day. I’m really very happy that a prominent person like Shyam Benegal has received this award.”

T Subbarami Reddy, D Ramanaidu, K Vishwanath, Vijayendra Prasad and Akkineni family members also participated in the award function.