Tollywood woke up to a terrible news on Sunday and on Christmas eve. Veteran actor Chalapathi Rao passed away due to heart attack during the early hours of today. He gained popularity for essaying roles with negative shades and as a villain. He later shifted to character-driven roles and he has done close to 1200 films in his career that lasted for 45 years. He started his acting career in 1966 with Gudachari and Chalapathi Rao acted with all the senior and young actors of Telugu cinema. He was last seen in Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya’s Bangarraju.

Chalapathi Rao also produced several films as a producer in Telugu. He is survived by his two daughters and a son. His son Ravi Babu is a popular actor and director in Tollywood. Recently, Krishnam Raju, Krishna and Kaikala Satyanarayana passed away and Chalapathi Rao’s demise is a new shock for Tollywood. Several celebrities offered their deep condolences to the family members of Chalapathi Rao. Rest in peace Chalapathi Rao garu.