Veteran actor Ramesh Deo passed away

Actor Ramesh Deo

, who enjoyed a popular and prolific career in

Marathi

and Hindi films over a staggering seven decades, died of heart attack at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday. He was 93.

Several roles performed by Deo remain vivid as ever. He was the oily and wily distant relative who sweet-talks an elderly Meena Kumari to move in with them, only to reduce her to a house help in ‘Mere Apne’ (1971). You would surely remember the amiable but world-wise doctor, who sits with his wife (real-life wife too, Seema Deo) in ‘Anand’ (1971) while Rajesh Khanna sings, ‘Maine tere liye hi saat rang ke sapne chune’.

And who would have forgotten the scene where ‘Jumping Jack’ Jeetendra sings and whips him in the same breath belting out the title track in ‘Jaise ko Taisa’ (1973). Only a first-rate actor could have displayed the different shades that these roles required with such effortless ease. And Deo, also a reputed performer in the Marathi theatre world, did it with ease and elan.

Born in Kolhapur, Deo went to school and college in the same city and it was here that he got a break in the Marathi film industry as a junior artist in the early 1950s. He went on to set up his own production house: Ajinkya Theatres.

Deo became a top star in Marathi films over the years; ‘

Umaj Padel Tar

(1960), ‘Vardakshina’ (1962), ‘Molkarin’ (1963) and ‘Aparadh’ (1969) are just four of his memorable films.

Director Phani Majumdar’s superhit, ‘Aarti’ (1962), the first film produced by

Rajshri Films

, was among his early Hindi films. He got the much heftier part of a senior police officer in the thriller, ‘Love and Murder’ (1966), which was directed by the famous Marathi film director, Raja Paranjpe.

The veteran was to play a cop in dozens of other Hindi films; ‘36 Ghante’, a desi remake of Hollywood’s ‘The Desperate Hours’, being one of them.

Deo was the lead villain in the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini starrer ‘Kasauti’ (1973). The film became a box-office hit. But the extent of positive rub-off from its success was limited.

Yet Deo continued to be a familiar face in Hindi films over the decades. Some years back he was a regular on television endorsing products such as Surf Excel, Vijay Sales and Lufthansa. It helped that with his sons, he also ran a vastly successful ad production house. According to IMDB, his last film, ‘Jeevan Sandhya’ (Marathi) was released in 2021.

Deo's grandfather came to Kolhapur to work as an engineer for Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and his father worked as a legal advisor to the Kolhapur Sansthan. According to his company’s website, Deo acted in more than 285 Hindi Films, 190 Marathi Films and 30 Marathi dramas. He is survived by wife Seema, sons Ajinkya and Abhinay, who is known for directing films such as ‘Delhi Belly’.

Deo contested the 1996 Lok Sabha election for the Kolhapur seat at the insistence of Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray but lost in a triangular fight.