South star Chiranjeevi was honoured with the prestigious Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) National Award in Hyderabad on Monday. The actor was felicitated by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. The Akkineni International Foundation established the award in 2005 to recognise artists for their outstanding contributions to Indian cinema. This year, the event commemorated the 100th birth anniversary of Telugu cinema legend and actor Nagarjuna's father, Akkineni Nageswara Rao. A video from the event showed Amitabh Bachchan honouring Chiranjeevi with a trophy and a shawl. To take Big B's blessings, a very emotional Chiranjeevi bent before him and touched his feet. After accepting the award, Chiranjeevi posed for a photo with Nagarjuna Akkineni and Amitabh Bachchan.
Hosted by Nagarjuna, the ANR National Award event was attended by several notable figures from the Telugu film industry. Actors like Nani, Brahmanandam, Ram Charan, Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishnan and many more joined to celebrate ANR's 100th birth anniversary. Naga Chaitanya and his fiancee Sobhita Dhulipala were also present at the event.
Earlier this month, Nagarjuna announced the annual ANR National Awards event on X (formerly Twitter). He wrote, "This year is extra special as we celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of my father, ANR garu! Honoured to invite @SrBachchan ji and Megastar @KChiruTweets garu to the ANR Awards 2024 to mark this milestone! Let's make this award function unforgettable! @AnnapurnaStdios #ANRLivesOn #ANRNationalAward #ANR100Years."
The ANR National Awards were last presented to Sridevi and Rekha, who were honoured during a ceremony held in November 2019. Before that, Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, SS Rajamouli, Hema Malini, Shyam Benegal, Sridevi B Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Anjali Devi, Vyjayantimala Bali and k Balachander have also received the award. Late Bollywood actor-filmmaker Dev Anand was the first person to be honoured with the ANR National Award.