Jeeva (telugu Actor)

Jeeva (telugu Actor) Biography

Jeeva is a Telugu actor who predominantly works in Telugu cinema, known for supporting roles. He has also done small roles in Bollywood films. The actor acted in around 250 Movies in Telugu and Hindi up-to-date. He plays grey shaded roles, henchman roles and also experiments with roles of different genres. Jeeva is associated with film scene since late 1970s and has completed 4 decades in the industry. Yet he has done only a few full-fledged and memorable roles. As an actor, he is best known for his association with ace filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma who frequently casts him in his movies, and gave him memorable character roles in Satya, Ab Tak Chhappan, Sarkar etc.

He was born on 30 November 1952 in Guntur, Andhra pradesh. He was born into a family of 8 children. His real name is Kocharla Dayarathnam. He marked his film debut in the year 1978, and is active in films since then. He was rechristened as Jeeva by ace filmmaker K. Balachander after his debut film in the late 1970s, as the director believed that the change of name could bring him fortunes. Later he named one of Jeeva’s son as K. Balachander, who directed Telugu films. Jeeva got opportunity to work with almost all leading directors of Telugu film industry since 1980s. He worked in only lesser number of Tamil films, and was most recently seen in Rajinikanth starrer, Kaala released in 2018.

As an actor, he earned recognition most for working with Ram Gopal Varma, who regularly gave him roles since 1990s. He mostly plays rude characters on screen, and works in Bollywood too. His memorable character roles – as Jagga in Satya, as Commissioner Suchak in Ab Tak Chhappan and as Swami Virendra in Sarkar remain his most popular ones in Bollywood.

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Updated: June 28, 2018