Almost all the family members of legendary actor, Telugu Desam founder and former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh N T Rama Rao attended the brief but colourful function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of release of a commemorative Rs 100 coin featuring him by President Droupadi Murmu on Monday.
NTR’s son-in-law and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, along with his wife Bhuvaneshwari and daughter-in-law Nara Brahmani, had been to New Delhi on Sunday night itself. Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh did not attend as he has been on his Yuva Galam Padayatra.
And all the others including NTR’s sons and daughters and their respective families including AP BJP chief Daggubati Purandeswari and Nandamuri Balakrishna flew down to Delhi early on Monday morning to attend the memorable event being held on the occasion of NTR’s birth centenary.
However, one person who was the most awaited at the function but was conspicuous by his absence was Jr NTR, who has a lot of affinity for his grandfather. Even his brother Kalyan Ram was not seen at the function, raising many eyebrows.
Sources said Jr NTR was indeed invited for the function, but could not attend the same because he was busy with his film shooting “Devara.” Maybe, he was also not keen on attending the event as he was not willing to face his uncle Chandrababu Naidu.
Though it was initially believed that the event was organised by the Central government, but it was later revealed that it was purely a private event organised by Daggubati Purandeshwari with the support of the Centre. The invitations were also sent by Purandeshwari.
However, the Rs 100 coin was made by India Mint at Hyderabad at the instructions of the Union finance ministry. The coin is made of silver, copper, nickel, and zinc. One side of the coin has lions and a circle, and the other side has NTR’s face with words in Hindi below. The coin also has the years 1923-2023 on it.
Interestingly, only six members of NTR family, including two sons, were present on the dais along with the President of India while releasing the coin. Only Purandeshwari and Murmu spoke during the event.
All the other invitees, including Naidu, his family members and BJP national president J P Nadda, were seated among the audiences.