Rallapalli Venkata Narasimha Rao was born in Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh on August 15, 1945.

[3] He started off his career in 1960 as a theatre artist before marking his movie debut in 1974 with Sthree.

He acted in about 850 films in a variety of roles, including that of a lead actor.

[4][5] He played pivotal roles in films such as Bombay (1995) and Minsara Kanavu (1997) in Tamil.

[6][7] Rallapalli died on 17 May 2019 at Maxcure Hospital, Hyderabad following ill health.