Veteran actor ‘Lava Kusa’ Nagaraju breathes his last in Hyderabad

Released in 1963, ‘Lava Kusa’ was a trendsetter in Telugu cinema. Starring NTR and Anjali Devi as Lord Rama and Sita, the mythological film is an adaptation of the Uttara Kanda from Ramayana and it revolves around the roles of Lava and Kusa. Anaparthi Nagaraju, the actor who portrayed ‘Lava’ in the film has passed away at his Gandhi Nagar residence in Hyderabad on Monday due to respiratory complications.The 71-year-old veteran acted in over 50 films.
Along with Nagaraju, Viyyuri Subrahmanyam’s performance as ‘Kusa’ in the evergreen classic has casted a spell on the Telugu audience and their solid emoting skills and mesmerising screen-presence received applauds from all quarters of the country. A few years earlier, the duo was felicitated by the C.P. Brown Mandir team and speaking on the occasion, Nagaraju recalled a memorable experience while shooting for the film.
He said “When NTR had to hug both of us in a scene; the director arranged two small tables and asked the legendary actor to hug us. This shows how much the director respected the lead character and also the state of technology”.
Directed by C Pullaiah and CS Rao, the shooting of ‘Lava Kusa’ started its production in 1958 and finally, hit the screens in 1963. Bagging the National Award for the Best Feature Film in Telugu, the timeless classic completed 175-run in 18 centres and ran for 75 weeks in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.