Kota Srinivasa Rao

Kota Srinivasa Rao born 10 July 1942 13 July 2025 was an Indian actor politician and theatre artist who worked primarily in Telugu cinema as well as Tamil Hindi Kannada and Malayalam films He made his feature film debut in Pranam Khareedu 1978 alongside Chiranjeevi His breakthrough came with the comedy Aha Naa Pellanta 1987 in which he played the miser Lakshmipathy He later appeared as politicians patriarchs and antagonists in films including Ram Gopal Varmas Shiva 1989 Gaayam 1993 Hello Brother 1994 and Ganesh 1998 During the 2000s and 2010s he appeared in films including Idiot 2002 Athadu 2005 Bommarillu 2006 Ready 2008 Leader 2010 Rakta Charitra 2010 Dookudu 2011 Attarintiki Daredi 2013 and SO Satyamurthy 2015 His otherlanguage film roles included the antagonist in the Tamil film Saamy 2003 and a role in the Hindi film Sarkar 2005 He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Vijayawada East from 1999 to 2004 as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party Over a career spanning nearly five decades and more than 750 films Kota received nine Nandi Awards in the Best Villain Best Character Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories In 2015 he was awarded the Padma Shri He died in Hyderabad on 13 July 2025 aged 83 His final onscreen appearance was in the period film Hari Hara Veera Mallu 2025