International School of Film + Media Announcement

Annapurna Studios has launched a new film school named International School of Film + Media. A press meet was organised at Park Hotel to brief the details of the film school. It was attended by Dr Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Amala, Naga Susheela, Venkat Akkineni, Sushanth, Akhil, Supriya, S V Sarathi and Curt Inder Bidger.

Addressing the gathering Akkineni Nageswara Rao said, “Today is the happiest day in my life even though I’ve seen many happy moments in my 70 years of film journey. Right now I’m 87 years old. I hail from a farmer’s family. I experienced the struggling time during my childhood period as my father expired and we had no money for education. My mother worked hard to raise her children. She joined me in street shows at the age of 9. At that time I portrayed a female role. Later I joined the stage drama troop and used to perform each drama for 4 anas. In 1944, I got the opportunity to do the role in ‘Seetaramarajyam’ through a great man Saamy. So far I did 254 films and 81% of them are successful ones. Cinema is the main cause for the growth of my family. My kit and kin are all educated. The reason, I was into films. Hence with the intention of serving the film industry I wanted to establish this institute. I was inspired by the universities and the development in America and thus wanted to do something for our people. But lack of man power and my children being too small to be involved, I dropped the idea of doing something big and established Annapoora Studios. After completing his studies, my elder son and Nagarjuna took care of the studios and also developed it further. I’ve never been into any acting school. I learnt everything by more number of takes while shooting. Now I’m very happy to see my sons implementing my ideas. Nagarjuna became the actor first, then his son Akhil entered the movie industry as a child actor, later my daughter’s sons Sumanth and Sushanth became heroes, my granddaughter Supriya is the studio executive and recently Naga Chaitanya also entered into films. My elder son-in-law Surendra is the producer and 2nd son-in-law is the son of the popular producer. My 2nd daughter Naga Susheela is also the producer. In this line my entire family is involved with movie industry. Today, my family has launched a big project which I’m very excited about. The film industry is struggling without appropriate skills. So I hope this film institute will be helpful to the industry. We have not started this organization to earn profits. I heard that this institute is the first of its kind in Asia.”

Nagarjuna said, “Today is a special day for our family. I’m very happy to fulfill my father’s dreams. We are going to make this as the world’s best institute. We are constructing it in Annapoorna Studios which has the premises of 22 acres land. It will be built with the latest technical facilities. We are establishing it without expecting any profits. We are associating with several production houses and also planning to tie up with corporate houses and universities to make this plan a successful one. The auditions will begin tomorrow and the first batch will start in September. This institute is not just for Telugu people but for people across the globe. The institute has courses from 24 crafts which will we introduce one after the other. Nimmagadda Foundation donated Rs 1 crore for the Media Scholarships.”