Actor Sarath Babu dies after a prolonged illness

Sarath Babu, who passed away today, was the quintessential supporting actor in south Indian cinema who effortlessly portrayed a range of characters

Veteran actor Sarath Babu breathed his last on Monday afternoon at a city hospital in Hyderabad. The 71-year-old was suffering from kidney and liver-related issues leading to many speculations over his health in the past few weeks. A regular in the Telugu and Tamil film industries, Sarath Babu had acted with almost all the leading heroes and heroines of the industry.

To say that Sarath Babu was a ‘character artist’ would be grossly undermining his versatility and space in the film industry. His ubiquitous presence in Tamil, Telugu and some Kannada and Malayalam films made him a household name from the 70s, owing to his seemingly effortless portrayal of a wide range of characters.

Though he started with aspirations to become a hero, Sarath was wise enough to accept roles from directors like K Balachander, Vamsi and Dasari Narayan Rao where he was depicted in a few lead roles, strong supporting characters and villainous portrayals. His repertoire spelt versatility across acting with generations of actors. One cannot imagine anybody else in the role of Raghupathi (Kamal Hasan’s friend) in K Viswanath’s Sagara Sangamam and also as the helpless poverty-stricken brother of Radhika in Swati Mutyam. Similarly in Vamsy’s Sitara as a bankrupt landlord and as a forest ranger with a hidden weakness in Anveshana — his portrayals were convincing.

His role in the 1987 Samsaram Oka Chadarangam was one the most relatable characters where he played a typical middle-class self-centred man in a joint family. This Tamil remake of Visu’s Samsaram Adhu Minsaram, put forth the subject in an entertaining narrative supported by Sowkar Janaki and Gollapudi Maruthi Rao.

In more than 70 films in Telugu, Sarath portrayed roles that were essential to the main story.

Born as Sathyam Babu Dixithulu on July 31, 1951, in Amudalavalasa in AP, he adopted Sarath Babu for the screen. He started his career in films in 1973 with Rama Rajyam in Telugu but got a big break with K Balachander for the film Nizhal Nijamagiradu in 1978 which was remade into Idi kadha kaadu in Telugu. He started acting in almost all the south Indian languages and became one of the busiest actors. There were ten releases in Telugu alone in 1988. Some of his significant films are Panthulamma, Maro Charitra, 47 Rojulu,  Abhinandana, Sriramadasu, Magadheera, Animutym, Jeevana Jyothi, Chattamto Chadarangam, Prana Snehitulu and the recent one being Pawan Kalyan’s Vakeel Saab in 2021.

Sarath Babu had a successful television stint as well, he acted in ETV’s  Antharangaalu (1997-2001) Janani 2000-2001) and Agnigundaalu (2005-26).