Nageswara Rao was fine on Tuesday, says son Nagarjuna!

Akkineni Nagarjuna, son of late Telugu cinema icon Nageswara Rao, told his father, who died early Wednesday, was doing extremely fine.

Nageswara died here at a private due to intestinal cancer. He was 91.

"My father was recovering well from the surgery. He was absolutely fine Tuesday evening and spent time with all our family members," Nagarjuna said journalists here.

Nageswara's body was shifted to Annapurna Studios for industry members and fans to pay their last respects. He will be cremated Thursday.

Born Sep 20, 1924, Nageswara's 70-year-old career comprises a filmography of 256 movies. He had mainly worked in Telugu as well as in a few Tamil movies.

He started his career in theatre and played women roles in the initial years of his career. In 1944, he essayed the lead role in Telugu drama "Sitarama Jananam".

Some of his best movies include "Batasari", "Devadasu" and "Prem Nagar". He was also shooting for Telugu family drama "Manam" with son Nagarjuna and grandson Akkineni Naga Chaitanya.