Shooting of NTR's biopic begins

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu gave the muhurat clap for the biopic on actor-turned-politician N T Rama Rao, which has been titled NTR, here at the Ramakrishna Studios on Thursday.

NTR's son Nandamuri Balakrishna is playing the lead role in the bilingual biopic, which is directed by Teja.

The muhurat shot was of Balakrishna  as NTR  enacting  Dhuryodhana from the classic  Dana Veera Sura Karna.

The movie, one of NTR's home productions, was the first movie ever to be shot in NTR's   Horticultural Cine Studios in Nacharam.

"The film unit has chosen March 29 for the launch as several NTR blockbusters were launched on the same day. Lavakusa, Patala Bhairavi and Desodharakulu were some of them," Venkaiah Naidu, an avid fan of NTR, said.

The biopic of the Telugu Desam Party-founder and former chief minister of the combined Andhra Pradesh is much-awaited and was initially planned as a documentary.

However, Balakrishna eventually decided to  make it a  commercial movie in Telugu and Hindi, encapsulating the life of his father from his humble beginning, as  the son of a farmer in Nimmakuru of Krishna district, till his final days.

"I thank my father for this life he gave. This in a way is a thanksgiving to my father, my mentor and idol," Balakrishna said.

He later shot a few scenes with an actor who  seemed to be playing MGR.

The regular shooting of the film will begin from Friday.

Director Teja said NTR's early days in Chennai  - which  was the centre of production for both Tamil and Telugu movies  then  - and the life of NTR as an  Andhra Pradesh government employee will be shot in the coming months.

Meanwhile, filmmaker Ramgopal Verma  is making another biopic of NTR, named Lakshmi's NTR,  based on the events that led the great leader to marry Lakshmi Parvathi.

Verma's proposal irked the ruling TDP in the state as he would be touching upon the "August crisis", during which NTR's son-in-law and incumbent Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu toppled his father in law's government, which allegedly led to his death.