Actor Murali passes away in Chennai

Sudden demise leaves Kollywood in grief

He was 46 years old and is survived by his wife Shoba, two sons Atharva and Akash and daughter Kavya. The popular hero who acted in 99 films so far in both Tamil and Kannada, suffered a sudden setback in his health on Tuesday night and had complained of chest pain, sources said.

Murali was quickly taken to a private clinic near his house at Valasarvakkam on the city outskirts, where he was given first aid. With his chest pain persisting, he was taken to a bigger private hospital nearby, sources said. The actor passed away around 7:30 am on Wednesday.

Murali’s body was then taken to his house where hundreds of film artistes, directors, theatre personalities and other industry personnel, including South Indian actors Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan, Sivakumar, Arjun, Karthik, Surya, Sharanya, Sneha, Radhika and her actor-husband Sarath Kumar paid homage to the actor. The cremation is scheduled for Thursday.

Son of the legendary Kannada film director, G Siddhalingiah, Murali started his film career assisting his father’s directional ventures. Hailing from Bangalore, Murali’s break as an actor came with a Tamil film “Poovilangu” (flower chain) in 1984.

Murali’s big hits in Tamil cinema came in the 1990s including in “Puduvasantham” (The New Spring) and “Idhayam” (Heart). Another of his successful film “Kadal Pookal” (Sea flowers) won for Murali the Tamil Nadu government’s Best Actor award in 2001. Murali acted in several Kannada films like “Prem Parva”, “Sambavami Yuge Yuge”, “Prem Gange” and “Ajay Vijaya”.

Murali, who was prominently seen at Rajnikanth’s daughter’s wedding here last week, also did several supporting roles with biggies including the late veteran Thespian Sivaji Ganesan, Vijayakant, Prabhu and Sathyaraj, and was paired with several glamorous heroines like Meena, Simran, Roja and Devayani, film industry sources said.