Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao
- Byname:
- NTR
- Born:
- May 28, 1923, Nimmakuru, near Machilipatnam, India
- Died:
- January 18, 1996, Hyderabad
- Also Known As:
- NTR
- Political Affiliation:
- Telugu Desam Party
News •
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (born May 28, 1923, Nimmakuru, near Machilipatnam, India—died January 18, 1996, Hyderabad) was an Indian motion-picture actor and director, politician, and government official who founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and served three terms (1983–84; 1984–89; and 1994–95) as chief minister (head of government) of Andhra Pradesh state in southeastern India. As an actor he rose to superstardom among the country’s Telugu-speaking people and parlayed his fame into a successful political career.
The man who would became popularly known as NTR was born in a small village near the coastal city of Machilipatnam (now in Andhra Pradesh) to a poor farming family. He completed a bachelor’s degree from Andhra Christian College in nearby Guntur. After qualifying for the civil service in what was then the Madras Presidency under British India, he took a job as a sub-registrar at Mangalagiri, northeast of Guntur. He soon left that post, however, to pursue a career in acting. NTR’s first film, Mana Desam, was released in 1949, and he continued to make movies until 1982, appearing in some 300 films and directing more than a dozen. He quickly demonstrated enormous popular appeal and soon attained cult-figure status. He often portrayed a Hindu god, particularly Krishna, in his movies, and his adoption of the white or saffron robes of his costumes as his everyday dress only reinforced his lofty image.
In March 1982 he founded the TDP, with the stated objective of protecting the interests of India’s Telugu-speaking people. The TDP turned out to be highly successful at consolidating voters against the then-ruling Indian National Congress (Congress Party) in the state. Riding on NTR’s popularity, TDP-affiliated candidates (contesting as independents, since the party was still unregistered) won a large majority of seats in the 1983 elections to the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly. The party subsequently formed a government, with NTR as the first non-Congress chief minister since the establishment of the state in 1956.
His first term, however, lasted less than two years. In August 1984, while NTR was recovering from heart surgery, the Congress-controlled national government (via the governor of Andhra Pradesh) removed him from office and appointed his finance minister (and Congress member), Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, as the chief minister. In September, after NTR returned, he mobilized support among the TDP members in the assembly, reclaimed the office of chief minister, and began his second term. Following the TDP’s strong performance in the 1984 elections to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament), NTR decided to seek a fresh popular mandate in Andhra Pradesh by calling assembly elections in 1985. The TDP won a commanding 202 of 294 seats, and NTR remained as chief minister.
NTR’s first two administrations were marked by a number of populist initiatives that included clothing subsidies and food and housing for people below the poverty line. He initiated a midday-meal program for schoolchildren and banned the sale of alcohol in the state. Although those measures were intended to expand the TDP’s popular base, they instead proved to be detrimental for the state’s economy by increasing expenditures and reducing tax revenue, respectively.
That apparent mismanagement was among several factors that contributed to the party’s losing power in the 1989 state assembly elections.The TDP won only 74 seats, paving the way for another Congress-led government. NTR led the opposition in the assembly and worked to strengthen the political base of the party. His efforts bore fruit, as the TDP won 216 seats in the 1994 assembly elections, and NTR started his third term as chief minister.
NTR had married Basavatarakam Nandamuri in 1942, but she died in 1985. In 1993 he married Lakshmi Parvathi (or Parvati), whom he then tried to groom to be his successor. His actions, however, provoked dissension in the TDP, particularly from Nara Chandrababu Naidu, NTR’s son-in-law and by then one of the party’s highest-ranking members. Over the next several months Naidu positioned himself to oust NTR from the party leadership, which he successfully accomplished. In August 1995 Naidu took over both as leader of the TDP and as chief minister of the state. NTR died of a heart attack early the following year.
