The US Post Service will honour legendary actor Vibhushan Akkineni Nageswarara Rao by issuing a postage stamp on the late star's birthday, Akkineni Foundation of America (AFA) announced.
It is the first time that an Indian actor has been given this honour. The Foundation will host a special Postal Stamp release ceremony in Dallas, Texas on September 20, on ANR's birthday to mark this tribute.
"I am deeply touched and so are other members of the Akkineni family by the issuance of this postage stamp, and I am deeply grateful to USPS for conferring one of America's highest honours to my father Akkineni Nageswara Rao," the legendary actor's son Nagarjuna Akkineni said in a statement.
AFA also plans to release the stamp in India at the first International Akkineni Awards Ceremony in the presence of ANR family members. The event hosted by AFA will be held on December 17 at ANR College, Gudivada, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh.
ANR, who died on January 22 this year, has acted in over 255 films in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. A majority of his films were both commercial and critical successes. Apart from being a movie star, ANR was a prolific writer.
His final movie project was 'Manam', which saw three generations of the Akkineni family including himself, his son Nagarjuna and grandsons Naga Chaitanya, Akhil in it. The movie is the biggest success of year 2014.
The actor was honoured with a number of awards including 3 Filmfares, Padma Vibhushan, Dada Saheb Palke Award, Nandi Award, Kalaimamani and Life Time Achievement Award from Telugu Association of North America.
