Mimicry Maestro Nerella Venu Madhav passes away

Renowned mimicry artist

Nerella Venu Madhav

passed away at his residence at Hanamkonda on Tuesday due to illness. He was 85. The artist, who hailed from

Warangal

, earned recognition across the globe for his mimicry skill and was even referred to as the ‘father of mimicry’.

Popularly known as NV, he started his career at the age of 16, and imitated everyone – from politicians to celebrities. He would imitate personalities from different languages and dialects, and that made him stand out from the rest. He could imitate somebody in Telangana dialect, as well as the Nizami dialect at the same time, and with perfection.

He rose to popularity with his stage performances, which were the stuff of legends, as he could perfectly imitate high-profile personalities such as NT Rama Rao, SV Ranga Rao and Chittoor Nagaiah, apart from several Bollywood actors too. He had also acted in Superstar Krishna’s Gudachari 116 (1967) in a cameo role.

N Venu Madhav was one of the rare artists to perform all over the world, and he was the first mimic to perform at the United Nations. He was also nominated as a member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council in 1971 by the then Chief Minister PV Narasimha Rao. In 2001, he received the Padma Shri for performing arts from the government of India.

Another special quality in the mimicry maestro was that he always gave back to the art form that brought him success and recognition. Ventriloquist and sound illusionist Mimicry Srinivas, who had performed all over the world, is a disciple of his. In fact, he was so revered by his students that they celebrate his birthday, December 28, as World Mimicry Day.

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed deep condolences for the demise of N Venu Madhav and described him as one of the finest artists that the state has produced. He also ordered for Venu Madhav to be given a state funeral.