Giri Babu

Giri Babu died on Saturday 14 November 2026 while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kondapur, Hyderabad. He had been suffering from age related illness for some time. He was 83, although several outlets reported his age as 80. Telangana Today, The Hans India, TV9 Telugu, Samayam Telugu and 123Telugu reported the death, and members of the Telugu film industry and fans posted tributes on social media. Funeral arrangements had not been widely reported at the time of writing.

Giri Babu was born Yerra Seshagiri Rao on 8 June 1943 in Ravinuthala village, in the Korisapadu area of Prakasam district in present day Andhra Pradesh. Several news reports of his death gave his birth year as 1946 and his age as 80, but Wikipedia and a 2017 profile in The Hindu, which described him as 74, point to 1943.

He came from a middle class agricultural family and was fascinated by Telugu cinema and stage plays from his student days. He left his village for Madras, then the centre of Telugu film production, to become an actor. After a series of setbacks he returned home and decided to give up, but on hearing that a film director was enquiring about him he went back to Madras one last time on a truck carrying coriander seeds, as he had no money for a train ticket. In those early years he shared a room with Mohan Babu, who later became a leading star.

After a long struggle Seshagiri Rao broke through under the screen name Giri Babu. His first successful film paid him 2,500 rupees. Jagame Maya (1973), in which he played a role with negative shades, launched his career and led to a stream of villain parts.

He began as a leading man and continued to play heroes from time to time, but became best known for antagonist roles and later for character and comic parts. Over five decades he was reported to have acted in more than 600 films, among them Dorababu, Zamindarugari Ammayi, Kurukshetram, Karunamayudu, Kaali, Bangaru Kutumbam and Sisindri, sharing the screen with NTR, ANR, Krishna, Sobhan Babu and later generations of Telugu stars.

Younger audiences knew him from roles such as Trisha's father in Athadu, Rashmika Mandanna's grandfather in Geetha Govindam, the chief minister in Jathi Ratnalu and Srinivas Avasarala's grandfather in A Aa. His final film was Anni Manchi Sakunamule, released in 2023.

As a producer he made Simha Garjana (1978), Devathalara Deevinchandi, Merupu Daadi (1984), for which he also wrote the story, Indrajith (1990) and Nee Sukhame Ne Koruthunna (2008). He directed Ranarangam (1985), Indrajith (1990), starring his younger son Bose Babu, and Nee Sukhame Ne Koruthunna (2008).

Giri Babu married at the age of 20. His wife died after an illness in 2016. The couple had two sons, Bose Babu, who acted in Indrajith, and Raghu Babu, who became one of Telugu cinema's best known comedians and also worked as a director.

In a 2017 interview with The Hindu he said he felt completely at peace after a long career in acting, producing and directing, and that he preferred to spend time with his grandchildren and great grandchildren in his native Ravinuthala.

Giri Babu was one of the most recognisable faces of Telugu commercial cinema across five decades, moving from hero to villain to character and comic roles and reaching new audiences late in life through hits such as Athadu, Geetha Govindam and Jathi Ratnalu. His work as a producer, writer and director, and his son Raghu Babu's career in comedy, extended the family's place in the industry. Obituaries described his death as an irreplaceable loss for Telugu cinema.