Career
He has been in the industry for nearly 37 years and has acted in more than 200 films, most of them in a supporting role. He has acted in 80 films each in Telugu and Tamil, 20 in Kannada, a few in Malayalam and Hindi He entered the film industry in 1973 through a Telugu film and later became popular through the Tamil film Nizhal Nijamagiradhu directed by K. Balachander. He is reported to have said that My dad was a hotelier, he wanted me to handle his business but I wanted to be a police officer
During college days, I developed shortsight and my dreams crashed as clear eyesight was a pre-requisite to join the police. the lecturers in college said the same and that was playing on my mind.
I thought even if I failed, I could fall back on the family business. In my heart, I knew that I don"t fit into business or politics.
I responded to an advertisement in the paper for fresh faces for a film and I got through the audition more easily than I had expected. My first break was in Tamil directed by Balachander.
The same was remade in Telugu as Idhi Katha Kadu with me, Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi and the film was a hit.