Thiruvananthapuram: Nedumudi Venu, the veteran actor who passed away on Monday, was actively involved in university arts festivals and other programmes when he was a student of SD College, Alappuzha, in the 1970s.  

"He was in the forefront of conducting college arts festivals. I noted with awe his peculiar knack in forming friends' circles and arranging concerts and ensembles on the sidelines of the college arts festivals," said Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishanan, MLA, who was a Kerala Students Union leader and the Kerala University Students' Union Chairman in 1973.

"Venu, who was a student of Alappuzha SD College then, was very active in all college and university-level programmes. (Late actor) Venu Nagavally was like a big brother to all the group members. Mallika Sukumaran, the mother of actor Prithviraj, was a member of the university students' union. (Actor) Jagadish was then a student at Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram. (Actor) Jagathy Sreekumar was the unit secretary of the KSU at the college. He was also the Arts Club Secretary of the college. Everyone then relentlessly worked for realizing the dream of the KSU to make the campuses a creative space for debates and competitions.

Nedumudi Venu was actively involved in organising the university arts festival held at Mar Ivanios College. He also actively took part in the competitions held there. On the concluding day of the festival, Jagathy, Venu and myself along with others took photographs."

Though we all parted ways, and he became very busy in the drama and film fields, we always shared the same of kind of rapport that existed during those memorable college days," Radhakrishnan added.

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