Actor Vijay Rangaraju is no more

Telugu actor Vijay Rangaraju passed away on Monday. The actor joined a private hospital in Chennai last week and on Monday he suffered from cardiac arrest and breathed his last. According to reports, the actor was injured in shooting of a film a few days back in Hyderabad and then he went to Chennai and joined a private hospital.
Vijay Rangaraju is his screen name and his original name is Raj Kumar. He played villain and character roles in many Telugu and Malayalam films. He is popular with the film ‘Bhairava Dweepam’ that stars Nandamuri Balakrishna and directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao. Rangaraju alias Raj Kumar made his debut with a Malayalam film opposite Malayalam superstar Mohan Lal. The film ran nearly 150 days and then he got an offer for the Telugu film ‘Bhairava Dweepam’.
When he signed the Telugu film, there was already an actor named Raj Kumar. So the producers Vijaya Production house changed his name to Vijay Rangaraju. They took their production house name Vijaya, the character is like SV Ranga Rao in ‘Pathalabhairavi’. So from his name Ranga and then ‘Raj’ from his original name, was christened as Vijay Rangaraju.
Though the Telugu film was a big success, Rangaraju didn’t get many chances. EVV Satyanarayana gave him a role in his ‘Magarayudu’. After acting in a few Telugu films, he left for London for a few years. After his comeback, he did films like ‘Uri’ and also acted as the main villain in ‘Yajnam’ film opposite Gopichand. He acted in some popular films like ‘State Rowdy’, ‘Ashok Chakravarthy’ and ‘Vijay’.
Apart from films, Vijay Rangaraju is passionate about weightlifting and bodybuilding. Vijay Rangaraju is survived by two daughters Deekshita and Padmini.