Veteran actor Shobhan Babu passes away

Shobhan Babu, one of the senior Telugu and Tamil film artistes passed away here on Today morning when he was practicing yoga at his Nelson Manickam Road residence. The actor was 71 years old and was survived by his three daughters and a son.

Uppu Shobhana Chalapathy Rao was born on 14 January 1937 and made his debut in film Daivabalam directed by Vasanthkumar Reddy, but the first film that hit the screen was Bhakta Sabari. He got married to Kanta Kumari on May 15, 1958.

Shobhan Babu is one of the few actors, who worked opposite politician Jayalalitha. Though Shobhan Babu quietly exited from the silver screen, he was a big hit back in his days. His film Manushulu Maarali ran for 25 weeks, which was a record-breaking achievement in those days.

Although, Shobhan Babu was a widely acknowledged actor down south, he was never in favour of any of his children pursing acting as a career. He invested all his earnings safely in real estate business and settled down peacefully in Chennai.

He had received Filmfare Award four times, Nandi Award five times, AP Cine Goers Award eight times of which he bagged the award consecutively for six years from 1970 to 1975. The real surprise is that the Telugu actor won the Madras Cine Fan's Association's best actor award 9 times in his 40 years long career.