Veteran actor Pradeep Singh Rawat, known for portraying memorable villains and character roles across several Indian film industries, died on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack at his residence. He was 74.
Born in Delhi in 1952, Rawat built a career spanning Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam cinema, while also appearing in television productions. Although he initially gained recognition for playing antagonists, he later established himself in a variety of supporting and character roles.
He is popular in Tamil thanks to ‘Ghajini’. His breakthrough in Telugu cinema came with S.S. Rajamouli’s 2004 film ‘Sye’, in which he portrayed the feared antagonist Bhikshu Yadav. The performance earned him widespread acclaim and opened the doors to several major Telugu productions.
Over the years, Rawat appeared in films including ‘Bhadra’, ‘Andarivadu’, ‘Chatrapathi’, ‘Lakshmi’, ‘Stalin’, ‘Desamuduru’, ‘Yogi’, ‘Jagadam’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘Maska’, ‘Oy!’, ‘Rebel’, ‘Naayak’, ‘Baadshah’, ‘1: Nenokkadine’, ‘Alludu Seenu’, ‘Nenu Sailaja’, ‘Sarrainodu’, ‘Nene Raju Nene Mantri’, ‘Jai Lava Kusa’ and ‘Waltair Veerayya’.
Rawat made his Hindi film debut with a small role in the 1985 film ‘Aitbaar’ and went on to feature in numerous Bollywood productions. His most recent release was ‘Gayapadda Simham’.
For his performance in ‘Sye’, Rawat received the Filmfare Award for Best Villain (Telugu), the Santosham Best Villain Award and the Nandi Award in 2004.
