Darshakaratna Dasari Narayana Rao is considered to be one of the legendary directors of tollywood. He is mostly known for his small budget movies, as many of them turned out to be big hits at the box office. At one stage, he defied then big heroes of tollywood like NTR, ANR through his small budget flicks. Subsequently, he developed lot of affection towards small budget movie makers and the directors. At the same time, he developed rivalry against big heroes like Chiranjeevi.
Apparently, ace director S.S.Rajamouli is following the footsteps of Dasari Narayana Rao. Although, he gave big hits with many star heroes, he is gradually changing himself the leader of small budget films. His 'Maryada Ramanna' and 'Eega' movies proved to be the super hits at the box office and their successes inspired him developing hatred towards big heroes. Interestingly, Dasari also exhibited similar attitude towards big heroes long back. That's why, many filmy analysts are saying that Rajamouli has turned out to be the true successor of legend Dasari Narayana Rao. Hope, Rajamouli will also get legend status like Dasari in future.