Rajinikanth welcomed by Balayya as he arrives in Vijayawada to attend NTR's centenary celebrations

Rajinikanth with Balayya

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth arrived here on Friday to participate in centenary celebrations of Telugu icon Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, who was popularly known as NTR.

NTR's son and well-known Tollywood actor N. Balakrishna received Rajinikanth at Gannavaram Airport here.

The superstar will attend the event scheduled to be held on Friday evening in the city. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders will attend the event.

Balayya, as Balakrishna is popularly known, has invited fans to come out and take part in the celebrations.

NTR, who enjoyed the status of demigod among Telugu speaking people, was a legendary actor of Tollywood. He acted in over 300 films and was known for doing the role of mythological characters.

NTR played Lord Krishna in over 17 films including Krishnarjuna Yudham (1962) and Dana Veera Soora Karna.

He entered politics in 1982 by floating TDP on the slogan of self-respect and created a record of sorts by coming to power within nine months.

Born on May 28, 1923 in Andhra Pradesh, NTR served as Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh from 1983 to 1989. He led the TDP back to power with a landslide victory in December 1994 but few months later faced a revolt from his son-in-law Chandrabu Naidu, who was unhappy over the interference of NTR's second wife Lakshmi Parvathi in the party and administrative affairs.

Supported by NTR's children from first wife, Naidu unseated NTR from power in September 1995. The TDP founder died of cardiac arrest on January 18, 1996.

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