Remembering Venu Madhav: 7 hilarious characters of the great comedian in Telugu cinema

Telugu cinema has certainly lost some of its greatest comedians in recent years and within months of Rallapalli Narasimha Rao’s death, yet another star has fallen from the sky. Talented actor Venu Madhav has passed away on Wednesday owing to the long-standing liver ailment and kidney-related problems. When his health condition turned critical the day before, the 50-year-old was rushed to a private hospital in Hyderabad and put on a ventilator.However, after battling for over 24 hours, the talented artist succumbed to the illness.
Born near Kodad town in Telangana, Venu Madhav was a renowned mimicry artist before trying out his luck in films with a minor role in Sampradayam. With hilarious characters in superhit films like Master, Suswagatham, Tholi Prema, Sye, Chatrapathi, Dil, Venky, Thammudu and many more, the comedian roused to the top in a short span of time. He bagged the Nandi Award for his hilarious performance of Tiger Satti in VV Vinayak's Lakshmi (2006).
Besides entertaining the viewers with his hilarious antics, the comic succeeded as a hero with films like Hungama, Bhookailas and Premabhishekam. He even proved his mettle as a host for several TV programs. In an illustrious career spanning for close to two decades, Venu featured in over 500 films as a comical actor and managed to portray a wide variety of roles opposite several superstars. Especially from 2002 to 2010, he was seen in almost every film and to be frank, he was solely responsible for the success of quite a few.
While Tollywood actors are paying their tributes on social media, let’s remember Venu Madhav by going through some of his hilarious characters in Telugu cinema.


Venu Madhav’s on-screen chemistry with Pawan Kalyan was an instant hit among the masses and the duo shared screen space in quite a few films like Suswagatham, Tholi Prema, Thammudu, Bangaram and Annavaram. He essayed the role of Arnold Sekhar in Tholi Prema and his amusing antics especially during the suicide scene and the sequence where he allocates grades to all the city girls will surely evoke big laughter. After Chiranjeevi’s Master, it was Tholi Prema that catapulted Venu into the big league with a bunch of offers on the way. His NTR-themed dance in ‘Romance Rhythm’ is surely a sight to behold.


Though it was a short role in the Sreenu Vaitla directorial, Venu Madhav stole the show with his impeccable comedy timing and funky expressions. As Train Collector Nippu Nagaraju, he generated some big laughs in the theatres along with an ensemble star cast like Ravi Teja, Brahmanandam, AVS and Srinivas Reddy. He also sang a few songs in the popular train episode and played the tabla with ease. The hilarious entertainer registered a stupendous success at the ticket counter.


In Rajamouli’s 2004 sports-drama Sye, Venu essayed the side-splitting role of Nalla Balu and though he was present in exactly four scenes, he literally delivered one of his best performances on the silver screen. As Nalla Balu, the famous actor mouthed some of the best one-liners with a stamping authority and his popular dialogue “Nalla Balu...Nalla thrasu lekka” is still remembered among Telugu cine lovers.


For his Tiger Satti character in Victory Venkatesh’s 2006 film Lakshmi, Venu Madhav bagged the Nandi Award for Best Male Comedian. Along with Telangana Shakuntala, the ace comedian produced a laugh riot with his rib-tickling expressions, funny dialogues and also, a few animated scenes. The actor’s personality was designed into a cartoon for a particular sequence in the film and the animated character didn’t disappoint either.