A veteran of over 300 films, Venu Madhav leaves behind a great comic legacy

Actor Venu Madhav, best known for his comic roles in over 300 Telugu films, breathed his last on Wednesday afternoon, after battling a liver ailment. The actor had reportedly been ill for a while now. Apparently he had been admitted in a corporate hospital for two weeks before he was discharged on Sunday. However, his condition turned serious again and family members brought him to the hospital on Tuesday noon.Though he was on life support, the doctors couldn’t revive him. He was declared dead at noon on Wednesday. though prolonged illness had kept him away from the screen for a while now, the news of the 51-year-old’s passing away came as shock to the Telugu film industry.

With a distinctive knack for delivering dialogues at perfect timing, Venu was one of the first actors to popularise Telangana slang with his hilarious one-liners. Though he started his career as a mimicry artiste, he was simply too good to remain on the stage alone. After his debut with Sampradayam (1996), he went on to become an unavoidable part of Telugu cinema of the 90s and early 2000s. Be it as the loyal best friend Arnold in Tholi Prema, hilarious Venu in Dil, Iyer in Simhadri, ticket collector Nippu Nagaraju in Venky, Nalla Balu in Sye, driver Azam in Kick or Vice-President of the Beggars Association in Pokiri, Venu became a household name, giving Telugu movie buffs plenty of good laughs with his quirky antics. He even went on to win the Nandi Award for the role ‘Tiger Satti’ in Lakshmi (2006).

The last few years saw very little of him in films, though he was seen campaigning for the Telugu Desam Party. Reportedly, he also filed nomination papers in December from Kodad constituency. He was the executive committee member of Movie Artistes Association. His mortal remains will be kept at Film Chambers until 2:30 pm today, following which the final rites will be held in Moula Ali.