Nedumudi Venu

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nedumudi Venu

• Kesavan Venugopal, popularly known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian screenwriter and actor who primarily worked in the Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films that include many Malayali films as well as Tamil films.

• Nedumudi Venu was born in Nedumudi, Travancore, as the youngest child among five siblings. He completed his primary education and followed his interest in arts and music. After his graduation, he started working as a journalist for the weekly news magazine Kalakaumudi, and after that, he worked as a teacher at a coaching institute.

  

• Following his passion for art and music, Nedumudi played Mridangam very well, which helped him become friends with the Indian filmmakers G. Aravindan, Padmarajan, and Bharath Gopi (also an actor). His friendship with the filmmakers helped him start his acting and film career.

• Venu started working as a theatre artist and then slowly paved his way to films. He made his debut in the Malayalam film industry with Oru Sundariyude Katha (1972) in a small role. Soon, he began getting more and more films, and he worked in Bharathan’s ‘Aaravam’ (1978) and Padmarajan’s ‘Oridathoru Phayalwan’ (1981) and ‘Kallan Pavithran’ (1981). This changed the path of his career, and he started getting lead roles in the movies.

  

• Apart from acting in the movie, Venu wrote scripts for movies such as ‘Kattathe Kilikkoodu’ (1983), ‘Theertham’ (1987), ‘Sruthi’ (1987), and ‘Ambada Njaane!’ (1985). He also acted in several Tamil movies like Kamal Haasan‘s ‘Indian’ (1996) and Vikram‘s ‘Anniyan’ (2005).

  

• Venu also worked in the Malayalam television series. Some of his famous works are ‘Kairali Vilasam Lodge’ on Doordarshan as its director and actor, Swapnam (Asianet), Oomakkuyil (Surya TV), Peythozhiyathe (Surya TV), etc.

• He worked in the film Parinamam (2003), which was directed by P Venu, and it won the best screenplay award during the Ashdod International Film Festival that took place in Israel.

  

• In September 2007, Venu won the Best Actor award for the movie ‘Saira’ (2005) at the Zimbabwe International Film Festival. Saira was the only movie that was selected from India to be included in the festival.

• In 2021, Nedumudi Venu tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and he showed recovery from the virus. However, he was getting treated for some stomach ailments for a few months. On 10 October 2021, he was rushed to a private hospital after he experienced uneasiness, and his condition worsened, and he took his last breath on 11 October 2021 in the morning. As the news went out, actor Prithviraj Sukumaran posted a tweet on his Twitter to appreciate Venu’s work and pay him tribute.

• Nedumudi Venu has also worked in an Indian English drama film that was directed by Rajshree Ojha. The film starred Zeenat Aman, Roopa Ganguly, Soha Ali Khan, and Keira Chaplin in the leading roles. The film consisted of four short stories of the Hindi novelist Nirmal Verma. The shooting of the film was completed in 2007, but it did not get a theatrical release and was released in film festivals across the globe. The film got its theatrical release in 2012 through PVR Pictures and received mixed reviews.

• Along with several famous personalities of the South Indian cinema, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi also came forward to offer his condolences via a tweet.