He may be a perfectionist for the rest of us, but Akkineni Nageshwara Rao had doubts as to whether he was capable of and apt for playing the role of Valmiki in Sri Rama Rajyam. He ruminated over the questions with Bapu and Mullapudi Ramana before taking the final call. When they convinced him that he can pull off the role, he asked his wife Annapurna for approval. Since she had been sick, Annapurna did not give the nod.

However, ANR went ahead with the idea because he had this conviction that, as an actor with a great body of work behind him, he had a responsibility to act in at least one good film in a given year. He feels that he should sustain the reputation by not seeming to be acting for the sake of money.

Personally speaking, cinema has been the personality-building vocation for the legendary actor. At 88, the actor refuses to cease to learn with each role. For one, he did not know the difference between 'shastra' (scripture) and 'astra' (weapon) until he acted in SRR.

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