Veteran Malayalam actor Captain Raju passes away at 68

Veteran Malayalam actor Captain Raju passed away today morning at his residence in Kochi at the age of 68. He was ailing for some time after suffering a cardiac arrest in July this year. He is survived by his wife and son.

Born as Raju Daniel, he was an Indian Army officer. After retiring from service, he became a Malayalam film actor and made his debut in Raktham (1981). He also went onto act in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies and Malayalam television serials. Raju is said to have acted in more than 500 films.

He was mostly offered negative characters because of his towering built. He also directed two films, Itha Oru Snehagadha (1997) and Mr Pavanai 99.99 (2013) The last film he acted in was Masterpiece (2017), with Mammootty in the lead.

In July, Raju suffered the cardiac arrest while he was on his way to attend his son’s wedding in the US. The flight was diverted to Muscat where he was admitted and was later shifted to a hospital in Kerala.

Raju did quite a few films with Mammootty. The star Malayalam actor spoke about Raju to Manorama Online portal. “An honest gentleman, he used to be emotional attached to his work. I got the opportunity to work in his last movie Masterpiece. Although he was under treatment he was willing to take up work,” he said.