NTR greatest actor in India: survey

Chennai, March 9 (IANS) Late Telugu actor and former Chief Minister Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) has been named the greatest Indian actor of all time, while Sridevi was voted the best actress, in a CNN-IBN Poll survey conducted in celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema.

NTR garnered 53 percent of total votes, while actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan amassed 44 percent of rest of the votes. Southern actors Rajkumar and Mohanlal shared one percent votes each, and the rest of the actors got less than a percent of votes.

Bollywood diva Sridevi, who recently made a comeback with "English Vinglish", garnered 39 percent votes to be adjudged the best actress, while Madhuri Dixit and Savithri finished second and third respectively with 16 and 12 percent votes.

Aishwarya Rai, Saroja Devi, Madhubala and Smita Patil finished with eight, six, four and three percent votes, respectively, and others on the list ended up with very few votes.

Mani Ratnam's Tamil action-drama "Nayagan", starring Kamal Haasan won 42 percent of votes to be named India's greatest film of all time, and Ramesh Sippy's "Sholay" finished second with 29 percent.

"Swayamvaram" received six percent votes, while "Mughal-e-Azam" and "Pather Panchali" had five percent votes respectively.

Among the directors, Mani Ratnam was adjudged India's greatest director of all time with 29 percent.

Tamil director K. Balachander finished second with 18 percent, while Satyajit Ray finished third with 14 percent and Tamil director S. Shankar came fourth with nine percent.

Music maestro Illayaraja garnered 49 percent votes to be named India's greatest music composer. Oscar-winner A.R Rahman took the second spot with 29 percent.

Singer-composer S.P Balasubramanyam finished third with seven percent, while late R.D Burman garnered four percent votes.