Annapurna Studios

Actor Nageswara Rao Akkineni always wished to move the Telugu film industry from Madras to Hyderabad (now in Telangana) as this is where its audience predominantly was. With the support of the government, he started the studio primarily to encourage this migration. The studio was inaugurated by the then President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on 14 January 1976.

Annapurna Studios built its first studio floor in 1976 which spans an area of 1,000 m² (11,000 sq ft). The second studio was built in 1978 and was dedicated to the workers who had made the construction of the studio possible. This was followed by the construction of two more studios spanning 930 m² (10,000 sq ft) each. Apart from the studio floors, Annapurna Studios also provides pre-built amenities which include the Manduva house (village house), police station, hospital, the Manam house. The company also has several backlots (outdoor locations) which are pliant enough to use for shooting.

In 2011, Annapurna Studios invested in building five new floors wherein the biggest floor spans an area of 1,370 m² (14,800 sq ft). This new facility features green rooms for artists & technicians, in-house 1520 kV generator capacity, catwalk grids for easy light settings, cyclorama/bluemat for special effects and inbuilt fire-fighting and detection systems. It also includes a 280 m² (3,000 sq ft) space for dance rehearsals, photo-shoots and press-meets.

Within the first few months this new facility had catered to over 35–40 prominent Tollywood productions including Naayak, Gabbar Singh, Mirchi, Dammu, Julayi, Shadow, Baadshah, Greeku Veerudu and Iddarammayilatho. It also played host to TV Commercial shoots for Malabar Gold, Mahindra Tractor, Joy Allukas, Jos Allukas, Kalyan Jewellers. Shooting of 3D & Reality Show projects is in the pipeline.

Annpurna Studios provides post production and studio facilities for various Telugu films, TV shows and serials. The post production facilities include Sound, dubbing, edit and digital intermediate suites. In 2011, Annapurna Studios expanded its post-production facilities by adding two new Digital intermediate and edit suites. The DI suites house the state-of-the-art Base-light 4.3 DI System and India’s first Mistika 4K DI System. The DI Team has done extensive work on S. S. Rajamouli's blockbusters Eega and Baahubali: The Beginning. It has also worked on Oosaravelli, Shirdi Sai, Rajanna, Routine Love Story among several others projects. Further support services include editing, dubbing, scanning and film recording.

Annapurna International School of Film and Media is the only privately managed, non-profit film and media school in India.[6]

It is also the only film school in India with government-accredited bachelor's, master's and MBA courses in film related subjects.

The school was launched in August 2011 by Actor & Chairman of Annapurna Studios, Dr. Nageswara Rao Akkineni and the Akkineni family with the intention of giving back to the community through their knowledge and experience in the field.

Many members from across the Indian film industry extended their support towards this non-profit film education. The advisory board includes Shabana Azmi, Mahesh Bhatt, Farah Khan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Javed Akhtar, Kamal Hassan, Tabu, Anurag Kashyap, Mani Ratnam, Gautham Menon, S. S. Rajamouli, Deva Katta and Krish.