Right from its inception, the Tollywood industry has seen many stalwarts, legends and icons but during one era, the industry was dominated by three men. They are NTR, ANR and Kantha Rao. All three are contemporaries. While NTR was the star of mythological movies, ANR was the star for social movies and the folklore superstar was Kantha Rao.
All three genres of films used to come parallel. As audience, we have seen how NTR’s legacy has grown. We have also seen the same rise of ANR to meteoric heights. They have lived larger than life roles and created an empire. They lived and died like real kings. But that has not been the case with Kantha Rao.
His last few years were not as rosy as the other two and recently his wife revealed in an interview that from 1999 to 2003 superstar Rajnikanth used to give Rs 5000 per month and from May 2000 to March 2009, Dasari Narayana Rao used to give Rs 5000. Kantha Rao also wrote a book called ‘Anaganaga Oka Rajakumarudu’ which was his autobiography. It was quite decent and he spoke high of all. Later, he became a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba. Kantha Rao was an actor who lived a glorious life. But after he made movies with own money he got onto roads because the films became disasters. Time passed and age came in, with no option to turn back, he took the spiritual path and had a pitiful end. Sad but true!
