Well-known character artiste in Tollywood, ‘Ahuthi’ Prasad (57), died of cancer while undergoing treatment at a private hospital here on Sunday.
He acted in about 300 films with a majority of them being in Telugu and a few in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. Perhaps, Prasad is among the very few film personalities who made a film title as their ‘surname’ and became popular with it.
Adusumilli Janardhana Vara Prasad shot to fame with a prefix ‘Ahuthi’ after his negative character role in hit film ‘Ahuthi’ with Dr. Rajasekhar and Jeevitha playing the lead roles.
Born at Koduru village of Mudinepalli mandal in Krishna district on January 2, 1958, Prasad started his career in films with Akkineni Nagarjuna’s debut film Vikram .
He won the Nandi award for best villain role in Nenu Ninnu Premisthunna (2002) and for best supporting actor for his role in Chandamama (2007). His roles in Kotha Bangru Lokam and Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimallechettu also brought him wide appreciation.
As the general secretary of Movie Artistes’ Association (MAA), Prasad worked for the welfare of the fraternity, particularly for the lesser mortals. Three films – Rudramadevi, Shankara and Pattapagalu – in which he has acted in, are yet to be released.
Prasad was admitted to a private hospital here last fortnight with serious illness. His ailment was diagnosed as colon cancer a few months ago. However, his family maintained confidentiality about his illness till the last moment. He breathed his last on Sunday afternoon. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
His body was taken to his residence in Film Nagar where a large number of film personalities and others paid homage. The body would be kept at the Film Chambers office from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on Monday to enable people and fans pay their obeisance. His last rites would be performed at Erragadda cremation ground on Monday afternoon.
Chief Ministers of AP and Telangana N. Chandrababu Naidu and K. Chandrasekhar Rao, YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Union Minister Y.S. Chowdary, Telangana Cinematography Minister T. Srinivas Yadav and his AP counterpart P. Raghunatha Reddy, Rajya Sabha member K. Chiranjeevi, film director Dasari Narayana Rao and a host of other film personalities mourned Ahuthi Prasad.
