Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, who was popularly known as N. T. Rama Rao and NTR, was the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. He served for seven years over three terms.

Not only a politician, NTR was also an actor and a film-maker. He starred in over 300 films, mostly in Telugu cinema, and was referred to as Viswa Vikhyatha Nata Sarwa Bhouma (which is translated as World famous emperor of acting).

NTR died of a heart attack on January 18, 1996 at his residence in Hyderabad, aged 72.

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Some of his achievements in the film industry including receiving three National Film Awards for co-producing Thodu Dongalu (1954) and Seetharama Kalyanam (1960) under National Art Theater, Madras,[3] and for directing Varakatnam (1970).

He has received the erstwhile Rashtrapati Awards for his performance in Raju Peda (1954) and Lava Kusa (1963).

He was voted “Greatest Indian Actor of All Time” in a CNN-IBN national poll conducted in 2013 on the occasion of the Centenary of Indian Cinema.

He starred in films such as Pathala Bhairavi (1951), the only south Indian film screened at the first International Film Festival of India, Malliswari (1951), featured at Peking Film Festival, Beijing, China, Mayabazar (1957) and Nartanasala (1963), featured at the Afro-Asian Film Festival that was held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

He co-produced Ummadi Kutumbam, nominated by Film Federation of India as one of its entries to the 1968 Moscow Film Festival.

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At the age of 20, NTR married Basavatarakam Nandamuri, the daughter of his maternal uncle. His wife died in 1985. The couple had 12 children – eight sons and four daughters.

His eldest son, Nandamuri Ramakrishna Sr., died in 1962. His third son, Nandamuri Saikrishna, who was a theatre owner, died in 2004 following diabetic complications. His fourth son, Nandamuri Harikrishna died in a car accident on 29 August 2018.

His sixth son, Nandamuri Balakrishna is one of the leading actors in Tollywood from the mid-1980s.

NTR’s second daughter, Daggubati Purandeswari is a politician. Her youngest daughter Uma Maheswari died in a suspected suicide on Aug. 1.