Career as an actor
NTR was a actor in the Telugu film industry. He started his career
playing a police inspector in the movie Mana
Desam (1949). The role was offered to him by the legendary
director L V Prasad. He portrayed Lord Krishna in Maya Bazaar, Sri Krishnaarjuna Yuddham,
Dana Veera Sura Karna, Lord Rama (Lava Kusa), Bheeshma (Bheeshma), Ravana (Bhookailasa),
and Arjuna
(Nartanasala).
Rao had no formal academic training in movie script writing. Yet he
authored several screen plays for his own movies as well as for other
producer's movies.
He actively campaigned for the construction of a large number of
movie theaters in rural locations and was influential in designing and
implementing a financial system that funded the production and
distribution of movies. Politics Telugu Desam Party
In 1982, NTR founded Telugu Desam Party and traveled across the state of
Andhra Pradesh crisscrossing all the districts in his van dubbed
Chaitanya Ratham (Chaitanyam literally means bringing to life or
movement). This tour helped to mobilize people and find leaders /
members for his newly founded party. His son, Hari Krishna, assisted him
in his tour by being his driver and close confidante. The people's
response to his campaign was enormous. People cheered him and supported
him wherever he went. Congress Party, which was in Government, had
panicked by the response and replaced the Chief Minister Bhavanam Venkataram with a more
experienced and seasoned leader, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy.
Reddy, who was Chief Minister for just over 3 months, could not secure
victory for the Congress Party in the ensuing elections in 1983 January.
The newly formed Telugu Desam Party won with huge margins in all three
regions of the State (Coastal Andhra, Rayala Seema, and Telengana),
winning over 200 seats in the 294 seat State Assembly. Congress could
muster only 56 seats. NTR himself contested elections from two
constituencies, Tirupathi in Chittor District and Gudivada
in Krishna district, and won both the seats.
NTR campaigned on the plank of Restoring Self Respect for Telugu
People and bringing the Government in touch with the realities of the
common folk. He believed the State must take care of the people that are
below poverty line and everyone must have their basic necessities
fulfilled. He campaigned to secure basic necessities such as home,
clothes and food (popularly known as Koodu, Goodu, Gudda) for everyone.
He offered to provide rice (the popular staple in AP) at 2 rupees a kilo
and to provide subsidies on clothes and houses to the needy.
He went into the elections with the slogan Telugu vari Atma
Gauravam, "Telugu people's self-respect."
He was also an advocate of women's rights. He worked on a bill to amend inheritance Law
to provide equal rights for women to inherit ancestral property. The
Amendment was enacted in 1986.
NTR was briefly removed from Office in August 1984. His finance
minister, Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, a former
Congress man, was made the Chief Minister by the then Governor Ramlal.
Bhaskar Rao purportedly had the support of majority MLAs (Members of
Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh) which was never the case.
On Independence Day, 15 August 1984, NTR was removed from office by
Ramlal. Nadendla Bhaskara Rao was appointed as Chief Minister. NTR
disputed the claims by Bhaskara Rao and demonstrated his strength by
bringing all the MLAs supporting him, which was a majority in the 294
member assembly, to the Raj Bhavan (Governor's Office). Governor Ramlal
did not relent and NTR campaigned for restoration of democracy by
mobilizing the support of people and various political parties in the
country including Janata Party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India
(Marxist) (CPM), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK),
and National Conference. During the one month crisis, the MLAs
supporting NTR were secured in a secret place to avoid horse-trading.
Due to mobilization of several political parties and the people and
due to bad press, Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister and head of
Congress Party, unwillingly removed Governor Ramlal and appointed a
congress party veteran, Shankar Dayal Sharma, as governor of Andhra
Pradesh to pave the way for restoring NTR. Shankar Dayal Sharma removed
Bhaskara Rao from power and restored NTR as the Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh in September 1984. NTR recommended dissolution of the Assembly
and called for fresh elections in the state to ensure the people had a
fresh choice to elect their representatives.
In the following month on 31 October 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated, due to an
entirely unrelated reason, by her Sikh bodyguard. Rajiv
Gandhi became Prime Minister in her place. In the ensuing national
elections to the Lok Sabha, the Congress party won big all over the
country except in Andhra Pradesh where NTR's Telugu Desam party won big.
Senior Leaders of Congress party including Brahmananda Reddy, a former
Chief Minister, and Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, a former Chief Minister, lost
in their constituencies of Narasarao Pet and Kurnool respectively to
Telugu Desam Party. Telugu Desam became the main opposition party in the
Lok Sabha.
Second Term
The Telugu Desam Party operations were
significantly computerized and a systematic local party structure was
built and this resulted in the establishment of a stable second
political party that survived his death. Rao introduced the concept of
strong states with strong center in his discussions about state power
with Gandhi and ushered in a new era of empowered local governments,
within the framework of India. The long held belief that strong states
imply a weak and collapsing country is no more a political dogma that
governs center state relations in India. He also lobbied and won the
amendment of Hindu inheritance laws to give women equal rights in
inheritance.
He suffered a mild stroke and was unable to campaign in the 1989
election, which he lost.
Third Term
N.T. Rama Rao returned to power in 1994 winning 250 seats (Telugu
Desam won 216; CPI: 19; CPM: 15) for his party and his allies in a 294
seat Assembly. Congress party could win only 26 seats. BJP which
contested 280 seats on its own could win only three seats. .
During the campaign for this election, NTR made three main promises to
the people, besides the promise of providing a better Government: 1.
Reintroduce two social welfare programs that were shelved by the
Congress Government:
- a) Government subsidy on Rice for low income people. Under this
program, Rice was made available at Rs 2 per KG for low income people.
- b) Mid-day meal scheme for school children from low income families
2. Introduce prohibition. This was aimed as a welfare scheme for
women in the poor families whose husbands were spending significant
portion of their earnings on liquor. 3. Provide subsidised electricity
to farmers. Under this scheme, farmers need to pay just Rs 50/year for
their power/electricity usage.
The mid-day meal scheme led to the single biggest drop in child labor
and increased primary school enrollment.
Unlike Mr. Rao's Rs2/kg rice program, all major state subsidies
before Mr. Rao's tenure such as free bachelor's degree education, free
rail tickets for railway employees, free telephones for
telecommunication employees, free electricity for electricity employees,
free medical care for medical employees, free loans for bank employees,
free housing for govt employees were targeted at the rich. His new
social net programs aimed at the poorest and the most hard working of
the poor were major political win for him.
Rao directed his tourism department to invest heavily into
restructuring Tirupathi, Tirumala and Amaravathi into tourist
destinations and into spiritual capitals of Andhra.
Second
crisis and breakup of the TDP
In 1995, his son-in-law, Nara Chandrababu Naidu split
Telugu Desam party on the pretext that NTR is ignoring the interests of
loyal party workers and giving more importance to a small coterie headed
by NTR's second wife Lakshmi Parvati. Naidu, who was a Cabinet Minister
in NTR's Government, was incensed with the growing influence of Lakshmi
Parvati and her purported interference in the Party and the Government.
Naidu convinced most of the Telugu Desam Party's legislators to elect him
as their leader, making him the chief minister.
Personal life
NTR married Basavatarakam in 1942. She died of cancer in 1985. There
is a Cancer Hospital established in her memory in Hyderabad. NTR got
remarried in 1993 at the age of 70. His second wife Lakshmi Parvati
started off as his biographer and later developed a relationship. NTR
had seven sons and four daughters from his first marriage. Prominent
among his children are Bhuvaneswari, wife of Nara Chandrababu Naidu and
the chairperson of Heritage Foods; and Daggubati Purandeswari, MP and a Minister of State for Human Resources in
Manmohan Singh's cabinet; Nandamuri Balakrishna a leading actor
in the Telugu film industry; and Nandamuri Harikrishna,
an actor turned politician and a member of Rajya Sabha (upper house of
India's Parliament). Prominent among NTR's grandchildren are N. Kalyan
Ram, N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Taraka Ratna. (all three
are actors in Telugu Cinema).
N.T. Rama Rao died on 18 January 1996 of a heart attack..Recently
in 2007, CNN IBN,a popular television channel made a survey "who is the
most popular person of Andhra Pradesh?". 73% of the people answered NTR
Controversies
During 1993, there was immense criticism on him from his own party
MLAs that he was giving undue importance to Lakshmi Parvathi. This
criticism along with rumours that he has an illegitimate relationship
with her, forced him to announce that he would marry Lakshmi Parvathi.After he came to power 1994, several party MLAs were upset with her
interference in party matters. This lead to a revolt against him which
was lead by his own son-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Duggupati
venkateswara rao. It is also rumored that Nara Chandrababu Naidu has
forced majority of the MLAs to take back their support towards N.T.R. - List of Films
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