January 13, 2011 (Sampurn Wire): Veteran Tamil filmmaker K. Balachander has been honoured with the Akkineni Nageswara Rao Award 2010 at a recent event held in Hyderabad. The award was jointly presented to him by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Law and Justice.

On this occasion, the director, who made the popular film Ek Duje Ke Liye said that he is going to cast Telugu evergreen hero Akkineni Nageswar Rao as hero in the remake of his another popular movie Maro Charithra. Balachander also expressed his gratitude for this honour from Tollywood even if he has always worked in Tamil films.

After receiving the Lifetime achievement award, the director compared veteran star ANR to Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar saying that both of them are rare achievers. He added that he came to know ANR has regretted never working with him, so he is going to make a film with him as a hero.

With a smile on his face, Balachander asked ANR if he is ready to play hero again and they should start search a heroine for him. The audience welcomed the idea with a friendly laughter. ANR has played hero opposite three generations of heroines, so it will not surprise if he turns hero again.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that he has been associated with the Akkinenis since long time and ANRs son Nagarjuna was his senior at school. He also praised the director saying that he loved watching some of his films like Maro Charitra and Akali Rajyam. Reddy added that he is very happy that Balachander has been honoured with this award.

We can soon hope to see ANR back as a hero once again in Tollywood.

--Sampurn Wire