Malayalam actor Captain Raju passes away

The veteran actor who has appeared in over 500 films across languages passed away at his residence in Kochi earlier today
Malayalam actor Captain Raju passes away

Veteran Malayalam actor Captain Raju has passed away at his residence in Kochi today. He was 68.

The actor was shifted to a hospital in Oman after he suffered a stroke during a flight to the US a few months ago. He was later shifted to his home in Kochi.

In a career spanning more than three decades, Captain Raju has appeared in more than 500 films, portraying a wide range of character roles in not just Malayalam, but also Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and English.

He is mostly known for his villain roles, most notably his character in Sathyan Anthikkad's Nadodikaattu, a hitman called Pavanayi. The character has been the subject of many memes. His villain characters in August 1 and Samrajyam also made an impression.

Some of his other well-known films are Oru CBI Diary Kurippu, No. 20 Madras Mail, and Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha.

He began his military service at the age of 21 and was promoted to the rank of Captain. After quitting the army, he made his acting debut in Joshiy's Raktham (1981), and then went on to work with directors like Sathyan Anthikkad, K Madhu, Shaji Kailas, Rosshan Andrews, and many others.

Apart from acting, Captain Raju also directed two films, Itha Oru Snehagatha (1997) and Mr. Pavanayi 99.99 (2012).

Though he made a name playing negative roles, Captain Raju was more interested in playing positive characters, says director Vinayan, with whom he worked on Kalyana Sougandikam (1996). "In addition to being a good actor, he was also a good human being. He would come to our aid if some issue was troubling us. He was like an elder brother to me. He loved the humorous character in Kalyana Sougandikam so much that he told me that from that point on he was only interested in substantial character roles. And his good looks and body language worked to his advantage. Though he was friendly with everyone, he was also very honest and clear about his stand on things."

Director Fazil also recalls his meetings with the actor fondly. "Even though he mostly played negative characters, there was nothing negative in his life. He proved that he was capable of doing strong character roles like the one in Siddique-Lal's Kabooliwala. That role was tailor-made for him. And, of course, no one has done a comical villain role like Pavanayi from Nadodikaattu," says Fazil.

Captain Raju was last seen in the Mammootty-starrer Masterpiece (2017).

He is survived by his wife Prameela and son Ravi Raju.

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