Comedian Venu Madhav passes away in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Popular Telugu comedian Venu Madhav, aged 51, breathed his last at 12:21 pm at a private hospital in Secunderabad on Wednesday. He has been suffering from kidney-related ailments for a while now. When his condition worsened on September 24, he was rushed to the hospital and was put on a ventilator.

However, he succumbed to the illness on Wednesday afternoon after battling for over 24 hours. Last week, he was discharged from the hospital under doctor's advice. The doctors advised him to go for a liver transplant as soon as possible. But his condition deteriorated in a couple of days.

Born in Suryapet, Venu Madhav started his career as a mimicry artiste and later ventured into films as a comedian. He made his debut in Telugu with 'Sampradayam,' which released in 1996. Later, he went on to star in nearly 170-odd films in Tamil and Telugu.

His last film was 'Dr Paramanandaiah Students' (shot in 2016), which is yet to see the light of the day. In the last couple of years, Venu Madhav was interested in politics and was active in campaigning for Telugu Desam Party.

Recalling his association with Venu Madhav, veteran comedian Ali said the former acted in more than 600 films.Expressing grief over the demise of Venu Madhav, TDP Chief and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu said the departed actor had liking for the party and its founder N T Rama Rao a lot.

His mimicry performance at TDP's party conclave 'Mahanadu' had won appreciation from late NTR, Naidu said. Venu Madhav's demise is a great loss to TDP and the Telugu film industry, he said.

Meanwhile, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, state Congress president and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kumar and several other leaders condoled the death of Venu Madhav.