Harish Rai, 'chacha' from 'KGF' passes away after long battle with cancer

Bengaluru: Kannada actor Harish Rai died after a long battle with cancer, on Thursday. He was 55. The actor was popularly known for his role of Khasim, Rocky bhai’s chacha in the ‘KGF’ franchise and his role of a don named Rai in Shivarajkumar’s ‘Om’ (1995).

Rai was, reportedly, suffering from thyroid cancer that had spread to his stomach. He was at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bengaluru when he died.

The actor’s battle with cancer began when he was shooting for ‘KGF’. In 2022, in an interview with a YouTuber, he revealed that he grew a long beard for ‘KGF’ to mask his swollen thyroid gland. Rai had openly spoken about expensive medical bills — with a single injection costing Rs 3.55 lakh, and he was prescribed three over a cycle of 63 days. He further explained how patients typically needed 17 to 20 injections pushing the overall expense of the treatment to about Rs 70 lakh. In an interview with a social media influencer, he had said he will come back to act in movies if he survived the disease. The actor had also requested financial aid from the industry. It was only actor Dhruva Sarja who responded to his pleas and came forward to support him financially, Rai said in a video posted last month.

Rai hailed from Ambalapadi in Udupi district. His family was in the gold business. When he was in his first year of pre-university education, an incident of corporal punishment at home forced him to flee to Mumbai, according to senior film journalist Sharanu Hullur. In Mumbai, he fell into the company of gangsters. And circumstances later landed him in jail for a murder case. Upon bail, he moved to Bengaluru, where he met Upendra and became a close aide. He played small roles in Kannada films until his big debut as Don Rai in Upendra’s ‘Om’, which emerged as a cult classic.

In an old interview, Hullur recalls, Harish Rai never intended to be a ‘hero’. He always wanted to play villain roles. He acted alongside Darshan, Sudeep, Shivarajkumar and Yash. He played prominent roles in such films as ‘Jodi Hakki’ (1997), ‘Majestic’ (2002), ‘Nalla’ (2004), ‘Sanju weds Geetha’ (2011), ‘Dandupalya’ (2012),and ‘Bangalore Underworld’ (2017).

Rai is survived by his wife and two children.