Telugu actor and former Rajya Sabha member Nandamuri Harikrishna was killed in a road accident near Telangana’s Nalgonda district on Wednesday early morning. He was 61.
He was the fourth son of the late veteran actor N. T. Rama Rao (NTR), the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and founder of the Telugu Desam Party.
Mr. Harikrishna suffered a severe head injury after he was thrown out of his car after it rammed into a divider, toppled and collided with an oncoming SUV. He was declared “brought dead” by doctors at the Kamineni Hospital, 15 km away from accident site.
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Two of the three occupants of the car sustained minor injuries. Police said the vehicle was going towards Andhra Pradesh, on the Narketpally-Addanki State highway.
The accident occurred at 5.45 a.m. near 12th Battalion Reserve Police, Anneparthy
Mr. Harikrishna’s brother, actor and MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna; sister and Member of Parliament Daggubaati Purandeshwari; his sons Junior NTR and Kalyan Ram were present at the hospital.
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Special permission was obtained to conduct post mortem at the hospital, replacing the procedure at the District Government Hospital, Nalgonda.
Stint in Telugu cinema
Born in 1956, Mr. Harikrishna entered films as a child artiste in Krishnavataram in 1964. This was followed by guest roles in films like Ram Rahim and Daana Veera Sura Karna , the NTR-starrer in the 1970s.
Mr. Harikrishna took a break from films and subsequently accompanied his father driving the ''Chaitanya Ratham'' in the nine-month campaign during the inception of the TDP. He returned to films in 1998 with a guest role in Mohan Babu-starrer Sriramulayya .
His movies like Sitayya in which he played a full length role were received well by the audience.
Body to be taken to Mehdipatnam
Mr. Harikrishna's body was taken by the Nandamuri family in a convoy from the hospital in Narketpally. His fans and others raised ''Harikrishna Amar Hai'' slogans as the ambulance with the body left the hospital premises. Fan frenzy gave a tough time for the police officials to move VIP vehicles out of the hospital.
The post mortem of his body was conducted at the hospital and doctors said the death was caused due to head injury.
Telanagana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed officials to conduct Mr. Harikrishna's last rites with official honours. The Chief Minister told Chief Secretary S. K. Joshi to discuss with the family members of Mr. Harikrishna and make necessary arrangements.
Sources said the body would be brought to his residence in Mehdipatnam. The family has decided to perform the last rites at his farm house in Moinabad on Thursday afternoon.