General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

NTR: Kathanayakudu (ఎన్.టి.ఆర్. కథానాయకుడు)

NTR: Kathanayakudu (ఎన్.టి.ఆర్. కథానాయకుడు; "NTR: The Protagonist") is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language biographical drama about the actor and politician Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, directed by Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, known professionally as Krish. It is the first part of a two-part biopic, with NTR's son, the actor Nandamuri Balakrishna, playing his father, and Vidya Balan playing NTR's wife Basavatarakam.¹ The film covers NTR's rise in Telugu cinema from 1947 and ends with his announcement of the Telugu Desam Party in 1982; his political career is treated in the sequel, NTR: Mahanayakudu.²

Key fact	Detail
Release	9 January 2019 in India (some listings give 8 January for early overseas markets)³
Director	Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi (Krish Jagarlamudi)¹
Lead cast	Nandamuri Balakrishna as N.T. Rama Rao; Vidya Balan as Basavatarakam; Rana Daggubati as N. Chandrababu Naidu; Sumanth as Akkineni Nageswara Rao¹
Music and cinematography	M.M. Keeravani (music); Gnana Shekar V.S. (cinematography)¹
Producers	Nandamuri Balakrishna, Sai Korrapati, and Vishnuvardhan Induri, under NBK Films, Vaaraahi Chalana Chitram, and Vibri Media¹
Runtime and certificate	About 2 hours 49 to 51 minutes; certified U⁴
Box office	Total collections of Rs 198.5 million (Rs 19.85 crore) against an estimated pre-release theatrical business of Rs 710 million (Rs 71 crore)⁵

Spoilers

Story and cast

The film begins in 1947, with Rama Rao leaving his government job at the Sub-Registrar office and moving to Madras to pursue acting with the encouragement of his wife Basavatarakam and the mentorship of filmmaker L.V. Prasad.¹² It follows his struggle for roles, his breakthrough with K.V. Reddy's Pathala Bhairavi, his casting as Krishna over the producers' objections, his partnership with Akkineni Nageswara Rao, his work as director and producer on films such as Seetha Rama Kalyanam and Daana Veera Soora Karna, and the charity work he and ANR carried out during the Rayalaseema drought and the Diviseema cyclone, before ending with the founding of the Telugu Desam Party in 1982.²^•¹³

The cast is large. Balakrishna plays his father in the title role, and Vidya Balan, in her Telugu film debut, plays Basavatarakam.⁷ Sumanth plays Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Rana Daggubati plays N. Chandrababu Naidu, Nandamuri Kalyan Ram plays Nandamuri Harikrishna, and Prakash Raj plays Nagi Reddy.¹ Guest and supporting appearances include Rakul Preet Singh as Sridevi, Nithya Menen as Savitri, Hansika Motwani as Jaya Pradha, Shriya Saran, Jisshu Sengupta as L.V. Prasad, and Sachin Khedekar as Nadendla Bhaskara Rao.¹⁴

Sequel

The second part, NTR: Mahanayakudu, covering NTR's political career, was initially announced for 24 January 2019,⁸ then moved to 7 February 2019,²² and finally released on 22 February 2019 after Krish shot additional scenes, including material on the early days of NTR and Basavatarakam's marriage.²³ Reviewers generally judged the sequel slightly better than the first part,²⁴ but the two-part biopic as a whole underperformed at the box office.²⁵

Production

The project was announced as a biopic of Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, the Telugu film star who founded the Telugu Desam Party in 1982 and served as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years between 1983 and 1995.⁶ The film was officially launched on 29 March 2018 in Hyderabad by the then Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu. Teja was originally attached as director, but he left the project about a month after the launch, citing creative differences, and Krish Jagarlamudi, the director of Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, replaced him.⁷

In October 2018 the makers announced that the film, until then known simply as the NTR biopic, would be titled Kathanayakudu and would be released in two parts. The first part was set for 9 January 2019, with the second part, Mahanayakudu, announced for 24 January 2019.⁸ Krish later said he had originally planned the material as a single film of nearly five hours with two intervals, noting that NTR's own Daana Veera Soora Karna ran four hours, but decided audiences had changed and split the story in two.⁹

Many important portions were shot in N.T. Rama Rao's house in Abids, Hyderabad; Rana Daggubati, who plays N. Chandrababu Naidu, described shooting there as a surreal moment.¹⁰ The film passed censor certification with a U certificate; the Central Board of Film Certification record lists N.T.R. (Kathanayakudu) at 170.28 minutes, certified on 7 January 2019.¹¹

Critical reception

Reviewers generally praised Balakrishna's performance while criticizing the screenplay's reverential treatment of its subject. The Indian Express rated the film 2.5 out of 5, writing that Krish's screenplay treats NTR as a messiah and that the film feels like a collection of episodes from NTR's public life without a strong pivotal moment, shedding little light on his struggles, insecurities, or self-doubts.¹⁵ The Cinema Express review, also 2.5 out of 5, called it a middling biopic that puts the people's hero on a pedestal where a common man can only worship him, while noting that Balakrishna is at his best in the emotional scenes, such as the loss of NTR's eldest son to smallpox and the Diviseema floods.¹⁶

Other reviews were warmer. The Times of India gave 3 out of 5, saying the stupendous performances make the film worth a watch and crediting it with showing NTR's journey from the silver screen to politics.⁴ Deccan Chronicle gave 4 out of 5, calling it a good tribute well directed by Krish.¹⁷ 123telugu.com gave 3.25 out of 5 and called Balakrishna's work his best performance to date.¹⁸ Telugu360, rating it 3 out of 5, praised the team for not being distortive of facts while noting a slow first half and an age mismatch when Balakrishna plays the younger NTR.¹³ The telugucinema.com review was more pointed, calling the film a hagiography rather than a portrayal of his life and citing factual errors and sugar-coated depictions.²

Box office

The film underperformed commercially. Telugu cinema's box office report lists total collections of Rs 198.5 million (Rs 19.85 crore) against an estimated pre-release theatrical business of Rs 710 million (Rs 71 crore), with a first-week worldwide share of Rs 180.3 million (Rs 18.03 crore), and labels the final result an epic disaster.⁵ Telugu360 reported that the film crashed on its second day in the Telugu states, collecting a distributor share of Rs 11.4 million (Rs 1.14 crore).¹⁹ A first-quarter 2019 industry report called it the third biggest disaster in Telugu film industry history to that point.²⁰ Rotten Tomatoes lists a gross of $928.0K in the United States,¹ while Box Office Mojo lists a worldwide figure of $78,538 for the title.²¹ The satellite rights for the first part went to Gemini TV for Rs 70 million (Rs 7 crore), and digital rights to Amazon Prime.⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Telugu films of the 2010s › Telugu films of 2017–2019

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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