Nagaraju, who was famously seen as the child Lava in the 1963 mythological classic 'Lava Kusa', has breathed his last. The veteran on Monday passed away due to a respiratory illness at his residnece in Hyderabad's Gandhi Nagar.

Nagaraju's superb performance in the NT Rama Rao-Anjali Devi movie was hailed and has been enjoyed by generations of movie-lovers. He shared screen space with the legends alongside Master Subrahmanyam, who played his twin Kusa. Directed by C Pulliah and CS Rao, the film went on to acquire the status of a classic.

Doing 'Lava Kusa' was very hard. "I used to wake up at 4am and reach the stutdio in a car at 5am. Wearing the costumes and the make-up would take two hours. By 7am, we would be ready to give the shot. NT Rama Rao garu would be on the sets by then," Nagaraju once said. The day would be wrapped up only by 9pm!

The film took years to be completed. It was simultaneously made in Tamil (with a different set of actors playing Lava and Kusa). But the Tamil version didn't do well at the box-office.

After his father was partially paralyzed when he was 14, Nagaraju couldn't study further. He went on to do a number of movies. He got married at 16 to the daughter of his dad's friend.