HYDERABAD: Popular film actor ‘Ahuti’ Prasad died here on Sunday. He had been suffering from cancer and undergoing treatment at KIMS here for the past few days. He was 57 and is survived by wife and two sons. His mortal remains will be kept at the Film Chamber’s office at Filmnagar on Monday morning for visitors. The last rites will be performed at the Erragadda crematorium in the afternoon.
Adusumilli Janardhana Varaprasad hailed from Koduru in Mudinepalli mandal in Krishna district. He made his debut in movies in 1986 with ‘Ee Prasnaku Baduledi?’ but it was ‘Vikram’, which was incidentally the first movie of Akkineni Nagarjuna too, that was released first.
His impressive performance as villain in the 1988 Rajasekhar-starrer ‘Ahuti’ fetched him fame and he came to be called ‘Ahuti Prasad’ in Tollywood.
With an aggressive body language and commanding voice, Prasad earned good name for his negative roles initially. But he made a shift to character and comedy roles later and proved his mettle even in those roles.
With movies like Aahuti, Ninne Pelladutha, Jayam Manadera, Chandamama, Sasirekha Parinayam, Kotha Bangaru Lokam, Sitamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu to his credit, Prasad earned applause not only from audience but also from filmmakers and critics. He bagged two Nandi awards for ‘Nenu Ninnu Premistunna’ and ‘Chandamama’.
Besides acting in about 120 films in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Hindi languages, he produced a movie in Kannada. His last movie was ‘Rowdy fellow’. He also signed Rudrama Devi, Sankara among other movies which are in production stage.
He also served as secretary of Movie Artistes Association (MAA).
“He was not just a good character artiste but was also very good individual,” said veteran actor Murali Mohan. Junior NTR, Allari Naresh, Kalyanram, Rajasekhar, Srikanth, Hema, Surekha Vani, Ali paid tributes to the mortal remains of Ahuti Prasad at his residence in Filmnagar.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna mourned Prasad.