Thousands of fans, those involved in the 24 crafts of the Telugu film industry and some key tinsel town personalities bid a tearful farewell to 33-year-old actor Uday Kiran, who took his life late on Sunday night.
All along the way from Film Nagar to the crematorium at Erragadda, people walked with the van carrying the body and kept shouting slogans against megastar and Union Minister K. Chiranjeevi and his family, including his brother-in-law and producer Allu Arvind.
Earlier, between 9.30 and 11.30 a.m., the body was kept at the Film Chamber and people came in a steady stream to pay their respects. Prominent among those who came were producers Dasari Narayana Rao, D. Rama Naidu, G. Adiseshagiri Rao, D. Suresh Babu, filmstars ‘Victory’ Venkatesh and Srikanth, apart from dozens of second-rung heroes including ‘Allari’ Naresh, Sunil, Prince and Naveenchandra, to name a few. The Nandamuri clan was represented by Tarakaratna of ‘Bhadradri Ramudu’ fame.
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Conspicuous by their absence were members of the Chiranjeevi and Akkineni families. But the people’s anger against the ‘megastar’ and his family members was evident, as they blamed them for smothering Uday Kiran’s prospects, following a failed engagement with Mr. Chiranjeevi’s daughter Sushmita.
After the cremation, his father V.V.K. Murthy was assaulted by women who accused him of being callous and not displaying any grief over his son’s death. Uday Kiran had been separated from his father and lived in his own flat for the past seven years.