On the occasion of his 97th birth anniversary when we think about what makes Sr. NTR such a legend, we get few answers. We tried to list out 5 of them, here.

1) Ready for anything

NTR never said, "No, I can't do it", for anything directors have asked him to do say old articles, snippets and pieces written by journalists, fellow actors from his era. At the age of 58, he jumped on a train for a song sequence in Adavi Ramudu film. You can see director of the film, K. Raghavendra Rao, who was half actor's age when he directed it, still fondly remembers how the actor just did the stunt without any fuss upon his request.

2) Always felt young at heart

Normally, actors after crossing 50 years, would be feeling a little embarrassing to share screen with girls whose age is 18 or 17. But NTR broke it twice with Jayaprada and Sridevi in his films like Adavi Ramudu and Vetagadu. When people said Sridevi was just 18 when she starred in Vetagadu, he replied to those comments saying, he was just 17 in a funny manner. This shows that he never considered age as a factor when he was acting. He even pulled off stunts at the age of 70, while performing climax fights in Major Chandrakanth.

3) Tremendous Self-belief

People tend to go through ups and downs. In an uncertain Industry like film making ups can take you to never experienced levels while downs can just bury you. If you don't believe in yourself, you can never make a comeback. Until Adavi Ramudu release in 1976, he saw 5 years of downtime for his standards as hits were far in-between averages and flops. But after Adavi Ramudu, he saw an upswing so much that he ended up being Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1983!

4) Extreme levels of Discipline

We hear a lot about him being disciplined and giving great deal of importance to the word he gave to anyone. On his sets, he wanted a discipline like KV Reddy, his mentor used to love. Also, he never liked to have any extra or unnecessary lights or apparatuses lying around on his sets as a director.

5) Dedication towards the work

He was so dedicated to his work that he cared more for his producers. He did not skip shooting even when his hand got fractured while shooting for Sardar Papa Rayudu or even when his right hand got slight paralysis attack while making movies like Dana Veera Sura Karna. You cannot make out difference on his face on the screen when the pain was unimaginable.

His level of talent is rare to come by and his level of self-discipline and dedication coupled with his enjoyment in his work, made him the legend of Telugu Cinema and one of the best actors ever in Indian Cinema, as well.