Venu Madhav, one of the popular comedians of Telugu cinema, passed away on Wednesday afternoon at Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad. He is survived by wife and two children. The actor, who was suffering kidney-related problems for the last few months, had been admitted to the hospital on September 6. Doctors had placed him in ICU on a ventilator as his health had deteriorated in the last two days.
Venu Madhav, who had completed his education in Kodada, was a mimicry artiste and performed at cultural events and wedding functions. One day, Madhav Reddy, a minister in the NTR Government, invited him for the Telugu Desam Party event in Bhongir. His event was a big hit, after which Chandrababu Naidu invited him to Hyderabad to perform at TDP’s Mahanadu. NTR was very impressed and offered him a job in the TDP office — he worked as a telephone operator for the party.
The road to filmdom
It was director Krishna Reddy who introduced Venu Madhav to the films, with Sampradayam. He acted in a few films before Tholi Prema became a big hit. Venu Madhav never looked back since. Then on, he acted in nearly 40 films every year and became one of the busiest comedians of Telugu cinema. He also acted as lead actor in the film Hungama, Bhookailash and Premabhishekam.
Incidentally, we learnt, Venu Madhav named his house ‘Achi Vachina Krishna Nilayalam’ as a tribute to producer Achi Reddy and director Krishna Reddy, whom he was grateful to for having introduced him to films.
In the last few years, Venu Madhav, who acted in more than 600 films, reduced the number of films he was working on reportedly because of health problems. However, the actor always denied those allegations, saying he refused roles because they were vulgar and not humorous. This had even caused some filmmakers to avoid casting him too.
Pawan Kalyan’s tribute
Actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan said in his condolence message, “Venu acted with me in many films starting with Gokulamalo Seetha. Apart from being a mimicry artiste who made everyone laugh when he got on sets, he was very knowledgeable about politics. I had always believed that he would recover and act in films again — very sad that he is no more. His death is a big loss to the Telugu cinema. May his soul rest in peace.”
