It has been a rough year for Mahesh Babu, who lost three of his closest family members this year. The actor, who lost his mother and brother earlier this year, faced another loss, when his father and veteran actor Ghattamaneni Siva Rama Krishna Murthy alias Krishna died on Tuesday.

As condolences are pouring in for Ghattamaneni family from across industries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his respects to the veteran on social media.

"Krishna Garu was a legendary superstar, who won hearts of people through his versatile acting and lively personality. His demise is a colossal loss to the world of cinema and entertainment. In this sad hour my thoughts are with Mahesh Babu and his entire family. Om Shanti," Modi tweeted.

Krishna was born on May 31, 1942, and has acted in over 350 films. A pioneer in the Telugu film industry, he is the first to star in Cinemascope film (Alluri Seetharama Raju, 1974), the first Eastman colour film (Eenadu, 1982), the first 70mm 4 track Stereophonic sound (Simhasanam, 1986) and also introducing the cowboy genre with films like Mosagallaki Mosagadu (1971). Krishna was admitted to a private hospital in Hyderabad following a cardiac arrest on Monday. Subsequently, he died due to multi-organ failure on Tuesday.

He was 79 and is survived by his children Manjula, Padmavathi, Priyadarshini, and Mahesh Babu.