Actor Lava Kusa Nagaraju passes away

Anaparthi Nagaraju, who played the role of Lava in NT Rama Rao-starrer mythological drama Lava Kusa (1963), is no more. Popularly known as Lava Kusa Nagaraju, the veteran actor died of respiratory complications at his residence in Gandhi Nagar, Hyderabad, on Monday. He was 71 and acted in over 50 films. Nagaraju's performance along with Viyyuri Subrahmanyam, who played Kusa in the film, has received plaudits from across the nation.

A bilingual in Telugu and Tamil, Lava Kusa was directed by CS Rao and his father C Pullaiah. The Telugu version won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu for that year. The film completed 175-run in 18 centres and ran for 75 weeks in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.