Veteran Telugu actor Jaya Prakash Reddy did not die of Covid-19, his daughter Mallika Reddy has said. In a recent interview that has since gone viral, she broke down while describing how her father really died, challenging the assumption that has followed him since September 2020.

Jaya Prakash Reddy died on September 8, 2020, at the age of about 74. The country was in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, and many people quickly concluded that the virus had killed him. Mallika says that conclusion was wrong, and that the reality was far more painful.

From schoolteacher to the face of faction cinema

Before he became one of the most recognised villains in Telugu cinema, Jaya Prakash Reddy was a government teacher. He took up the job at 22, because he was academically sharp from childhood. But acting kept pulling at him. While working as a teacher, he performed in stage plays and built a reputation for playing a wide range of characters.

That stage work changed his life. Director Dasari Narayana Rao saw him perform the play Guptchup in Nalgonda and offered him a role in Brahma Putrudu, released in 1988. He went on to appear in several films over the following years, but his career took a decisive turn in 1999 with the release of Samarasimha Reddy.

The film was a massive hit, and it turned Jaya Prakash Reddy into the go-to name for faction films in Telugu cinema. Over the next two decades, he appeared in more than 300 films, including Jayam Manade Ra, Chennakesava Reddy, Rayalaseema Ramanna Chowdary, Seema Simham, Kabaddi Kabaddi, Ayudham and Indra. Although he was mostly cast as a villain, he also won audiences over with comic turns in films such as Evadi Gola Vadidi.

The death the world did not understand

When the news of his death broke, the Covid connection seemed obvious to many. Mallika now says that is not the truth. Speaking on camera, she said her father passed away during the Corona period but was not killed by the virus.

According to her account, the family was dealing with a Covid infection at home at the time. Her younger brother’s family had contracted the virus, and Jaya Prakash Reddy was living alone in a penthouse on the upper floor of the same house. He also had some existing health problems. Mallika says the fact that his son’s family had been infected weighed heavily on him, and he sank into depression.

The most unsettling part of her account is how normal the day seemed. She said he was fine that morning. Then, without warning, he died suddenly.

An industry that stayed away

Mallika’s account also turns to the people who were supposed to stand beside him. She says no one from the film industry came to the funeral. Many people stayed away, she believes, because they assumed he had died of Covid and were afraid to come.

The funeral took place in Guntur. According to Mallika, only one person arrived to pay his respects: an uncle who had worked as his manager for 13 years. Calls did come in from some people in the film industry after news of his death spread. But she said not a single hero even picked up the phone to call.

For a man who spent decades giving the industry some of its most memorable screen presences, that silence is what hurt the family most. The emotion in her voice made clear that the wound has not healed.

A deeply Andhra story

This is more than a Tollywood story for audiences in Andhra Pradesh. Jaya Prakash Reddy was born in Sirivella village in Allagadda mandal of Kurnool district, and the state’s Rayalaseema region shaped much of the rural drama that made his name. His funeral was held in Guntur, also in Andhra Pradesh. For many fans in the state, the death was a personal loss, and the revelations about how the family was left to grieve will land hard.

The words that have travelled

Mallika’s remarks have struck a nerve across social media. The most powerful line from her interview cuts straight to the heart of the matter:

Nanna passed away during the Corona time. But he did not die of Corona. Everyone thought he had, and no one from the industry came.

Her words have forced a question that many fans never asked in 2020. Was the actor’s death a medical tragedy alone, or did isolation, fear and silence play a part in how his last days unfolded? Mallika’s account suggests the family was left to face that grief largely on its own.

The interview does not provide medical records or further details about the sudden death, and it is her personal account of events. But as her family’s story spreads, it has reopened a painful chapter for a man who gave Telugu cinema its most feared villains, and who, according to his daughter, was left without the industry’s support when he needed it most.