Last rites of veteran actor Krishnam Raju to be performed on Monday at his farmhouse

Hyderabad: The last rites of film actor and former Union Minister Krishnam Raju will be performed at Kanakamamidi Farm House in Moinabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Monday at 1 pm. On the other hand, movie stars and political leaders are paying tribute to Krishnam Raju. 

He passed away while undergoing treatment at Gachibowli AIG Hospital in Hyderabad in the wee hours of Monday. Mortal remains of Krishnam Raju were kept at his residence in Jubilee Hills to pay homage to the departed soul. 

Krishnam Raju was born at Mogaltur in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. He was born on January 20, 1940. Krishnam Raju is survived by wife Syamala Devi, daughters Prasida, Prakriti and Pradeepti. 

Prabhas is the son of U Suryanarayana Raju, the younger brother of Krishnam Raju. Krishnam Raju made his film debut as a hero with the movie ‘Chiluka Gorinka’, which was released in 1966. The last film he acted in was 'Radhe Shyam'. He played the role of Parama Hamsa in 'Radhe Shyam'.

Krishnamraju acted in about 187 films and some of the popular films include ‘Jeevana Tarangaalu’, ‘Krishnaveni’, ‘Bhakta Kannappa’, ‘Amara Deepam’, ‘Katakatala Rudrayya’, ‘Manavuri Pandavulu’, ‘Rangoon Rowdy’, ‘Trishulam’, ‘Bobbili Brahmanna’, ‘Tandra Paparayudu’, ‘Bava Bavamaridi’, ‘Palnati Paurusham’ and ‘Rudramadevi’.

He did seven movies with NTR, six with ANR, 21 with Krishna and eight with Sobhan Babu. Krishnam Raju and Krishna's combination became popular as a hit combination. Krishnam Raju launched his own production house called Gopikrishna Movies and produced 11 movies under his banner.

Krishnam Raju joined the Congress party in 1991. Later, he switched over loyalties to Bharatiya Janata Party before the 1998 elections and won the Kakinada Parliament seat. In the 1999 by-elections, he won from the Narsapuram Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket and was inducted into the Cabinet at the Centre. He lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In 2009, he quit the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined the Praja Rajyam Party launched by Chiranjeevi. After that, he joined BJP again.