Telugu actor Kaikala Satyanarayana passes away, Tollywood stars Ram Charan, Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu pay tribute

The veteran Telugu actor had been suffering from COVID-related complications since last year

Kaikala Satyanarayana

Veteran Telugu star Kaikala Satyanarayana passed away at his residence in Hyderabad on Friday morning. The actor and former Member of Parliament was suffering from COVID-related ailments since November 2021 and had been on respiratory support at his home in Filmnagar since then. He was 87.

Kaikala had worked in over 770 movies since his debut in 1959 with Sipayi Kuthuru. He was last seen in Mahesh Babu’s 2019 movie Maharishi, which was directed by Vamshi Paidipally. In his career spanning 50 years, the actor had starred in several superhits such as Sri Krishnarjuna Yuddham, Yamagola, Yamaleela, Murai, Subhalekha, Anveshana and Soggadu. He had also played antagonists, beginning from Kanaka Durga Pooja Mahima.

The veteran actor had also starred in several Hindi movies such as Sita Swayamvar, Shri Ram Vanvas. Karma and Ghayal Sherni. In Tamil, he had worked in Kamal Haasan’s Panchatanthiram and Periyar. He had received several awards over his stellar career including the 2011 Raghupati Venkaiah Award.

As a producer, his firm backed movies such as Kodama Simham, Bangaru Kutumbam and Muddala Mogudu.

Several actors from the Telugu film industry also expressed their condolences, soon after hearing the news of his demise.

Nani had tweeted, “One of my favourite actors from golden era of Telugu cinema.” Meanwhile, Ram Charan wrote that his contribution to the Telugu film industry will be remembered forever. Actors such as Kalyanram Nandamuri and Ravi Teja also took to their social networking pages to share their tribute.

Mahesh Babu, who had shared screen space with him in Maharishi, tweeted, “I have some very fond memories of working with him. He will be missed.”

Gopichand and Anasuya Bharadwaj also expressed their grief through their Twitter pages.

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