Often a friend to the hero or his rival, actor Venu Madhav was part of several Telugu films. Irrespective of whichever role it was, the actor never failed to entertain the audience. While comic roles and dialogues were written to mock his skin complexion and height, the actor used it to his advantage to evoke laughter with his spot on impressions.  

On Wednesday, Venu Madhav, who made his debut in the 1996 film Sampradayam, passed away due to multiple health issues at 39.

Venu Madhav acted in close to 170 films alongside several superstars, including Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Jr NTR, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas and others. Besides being a comedian, he was also a mimicry artist and a musician. He was among the few comedians from Telangana who truly made a mark in the industry. He also tried his hand at politics, but was unsuccessful.

While Venu Madhav, like his contemporaries made several comedies which were sexist in nature and had innuendo filled dialogues, he also made several others that remain memorable. Here's a look at some of those comedies which have aged well:

It was Tholi Prema that first got him wide recognition. In the film, during his introductory scene, the actor plays a man who has attempted to kill himself. His mother assumes that he took the extreme step after failing to clear the exams. However, the reason for it is that his girlfriend is about to get married to someone else. Venu Madhav, who is initially sad about it, suddenly becomes proud when his mom wails that he is a sincere student.

In the film Simhadri, directed by SS Rajamouli, Venu Madhav did a minor though effective one. He harasses both Jr NTR and Brahmanandam, pretending to be a physically-challenged man.

In yet another Rajamouli directorial, Sye, Venu Madhav played a memorable character who pretends to be a ruffian and vandalises the walls of all the wrong people, and ends up in deep trouble. 

In Dubai Seenu, Venu Madhav cheats Ravi Teja and his friends, who plan to leave to Dubai to work. When he finally gets caught, he creates another story to escape from them.  

In Dil, directed by VV Vinayak, Venu Madhav plays the role of Nitiin’s uncle. Particularly, the episode of him trying to rein in an angry buffalo and what happens after is simply hilarious.