Legendary cinema personality Visu, who passed away earlier today, was a close friend of veteran stage artiste and actor-politician S Ve Sekhar. "Even though he is four years elder to me, we were vaada-poda friends," says Sekhar, who reminisced about his long-term association with Visu. 

"We have been friends since our early stage days. In fact, it was Visu who facilitated my first outstation play," says Sekhar, who has also acted in almost 30 films with Visu.

Deeming Visu's demise as a huge personal loss, Sekhar adds, "We were always in touch. His kidney-related ailments were already taking a toll on his health, and I am told that earlier today, he suffered a massive attack, and was rushed to the hospital. He had a peaceful death." 

Sekhar not only starred in Visu's scripts like Kudumbam Oru Kadhambam and Simla Special, but headlined many of his directorials including Manal Kayiru and Chidambara Ragasiyam.

Incidentally, in a beautiful turn of things, while Visu's last directorial venture Sigamani Ramamani starred Sekhar in the lead role, his last acting role came in Manal Kayiru 2, which also starred Sekhar in a pivotal role.