Veteran Tollywood actor Kota Srinivasa Rao is fit and healthy. He himself dismissed the rumours of his demise after several media portals and YouTube channels declared Kota Srinivasa Rao dead. The actor on Tuesday said that social media has killed him, and has appealed to people not to believe rumours of his death. Rao, who was affected by such reports, issued a clarification.
He released a video to dismiss rumours of his death. The 75-year-old said that those spreading rumours should not play with the life of anyone. Srinivasa Rao said people should teach a befitting lesson to those spreading rumours. The actor termed the rumours about his death "unfortunate".
"It has come to my notice that they have declared me dead. Ten cops arrived at my residence to provide security for important persons who will be turning up. I urge them to do something to ensure that fake death news is averted in the future," he said.
"At a time when I am busy with Ugadi festival tomorrow, the series of phone calls was disturbing. If there was some elderly person in my place, his heart would have stopped beating," he said, adding, "If they want popularity or money, there are many ways to earn it but spreading such rumours is not proper."
The character actor has acted in more than 700 films. He made his debut in 1978 with 'Pranam Khareedu'. He has also been a part of some Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada movies. He had joined BJP in the 1990s and was elected to Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Vijayawada East in 1999. He was honoured with a Padma Shri award in the year 2015.
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