Nandamuri Balakrishna entered the film Industry at the age of 14 through his home production Tathammakala, in which he had the opportunity to work with Late Sri NTR and Dr. Bhanumati Ramakrishna. For 10 successive years, he acted off and on in movies, mostly produced under his home production. 1984 is the year when his first movie as a solo hero was released and interestingly, he acted in very less number of movies made under his home productions after that.
Even though he entered the film industry because of his father, later his hard work, discipline, talent and dedication made him stand in the industry. He believes in astrology and numerology.
He acted in a movie called Annadammula Anubandham, a remake of Dharmendra's Hindi hit Yaadon Ki Baarat at the age of 16. Upon watching this movie, the other legend of the Telugu film industry Sri. ANR's comment was “Simham kadupuna Simham puttindi”.
He acted in a brother's role to his real-life father in that movie as well as in "Roudi Ramudu Konte Krishnudu", and in a son's role to his real-life brother Hari Krishna in the movie "Dana Veera Sura Karna". In the year 1984, he acted in 3 popular films, "Mangamma Gari Manavadu", "Kathanayakudu" and his home production "Sri Madvirat Potuluri Virabrahmendra Swamy Charitra".
In the year 1986, the magazine "The Week" published Balakrishna's picture in the cover page. During the year of 1993, only two of his movies were released and surprisingly both of them were released on the same day. This is a very rare event in the Telugu film industry. He ended the millennium with a popular movie 'Samara Simha Reddy'.
Balayya is famous for his roles in the movies made with a village backdrop. He worked as an associate director for his father's last directional venture (Samrat Asoka). He is a fan and admirer of his father, and he has respect for his father's contemporaries.
Films
NBK has acted in more than 89 movies so far. Three of the 76 movies are silver jubilee pictures. He entered cine field as a child artist. He got his first commercial break as a Hero with 'Mangamma Gari Manavadu'. Bhargava Arts and Kodi Rama Krishna are responsible for the elevation of Hero image for Balayya in the early days.
Balayya did lot of 'Rural' movies that were run away hits. Another milestone in the career of NBK was 'Muddula Mavaiah' from the makers of MGM. But the director who made NBK most successful is B Gopal. Rowdy Inspector had set the cash registers ringing in the summer of 1992.
After Peddannayya, nothing significant happened until 1999 for NBK other than a string of flops. His Samarsimha Reddy which was released with deficit, and truly speaking, this movie created wonders at the box office. Samara Simha Reddy is the pinnacle of success for NBK.
His movies Samara Simha Reddy, Narasimha Naidu had rewritten the box office records. Narasimha Naidu took everybody by surprise. He won the 'Cine Goers Association's best actor award for 2001' and 'the Nandi award for the year 2002' for his performance in Narasimha Naidu.
Also, conferred on him was the "Natasimha" tag and it was a sweet accolade that marked the silver jubilee of his career. He had acted in 4 Golden Jubilee movies produced under the Bhargav Arts (producer Sri. S. Gopala Reddy) banner.
Though he is known for his ferocious acting, he too had played soft roles and got the appreciation from all and sundry. Three immaculate classics of NBK's career are 'Naari Naari Naduma Muraari', 'Aditya 369' and 'Bhairava Dweepam'.
Interesting Facts
Nandamuri Balakrishna went on a vacation to his father-in-law Devarapalli Suryam's house during which he went on a political campaign for TDP all over East Godavari district and made a victory for TDP. After coming to know about this, NTR said that the East Godavari victory is completely Balayya's victory. Nandamuri Balakrishna contested in the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections on behalf of TDP and won the Hindupur Assembly Constituency seat with a reasonable majority. Hindupur, in Anantapur district, has been a TDP stronghold since 1983.
