HYDERABAD: Veteran character actor, comedian, and former MLA Kota Srinivasa Rao passed away due to ill health in Hyderabad on Sunday morning. He was 83. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015.
He joined the BJP and was elected as the Vijayawada East MLA in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh in 1999. Srinivasa Rao, popularly known as Kota, began his acting career as a theatre artist.
He was born on July 10, 1942, in Kankipadu village, a suburb of Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh.
He started acting in films in 1978 with Pranam Khareedu. However, he got his major break with the character Kasaiah in the film Pratighatana.
Kota Srinivasa Rao and Babu Mohan, another former MLA, formed a hit comedy duo in the Telugu film industry.
Kota Srinivasa Rao, BJP leader Ale Narendra, and Congress leader Dronam Raju Satyanarayana appeared in the movie Tegimpu, in which Bhanuchandar played the lead role.