Acclaimed director and producer Tatineni Rama Rao passed away on Wednesday (April 20) in Chennai. He was 83. According to reports, Rama Rao was admitted to a private hospital and died due to age-related illnesses. The news of the renowned producer-director's demise was informed via an official statement by his family members. The statement read, "With great sadness, we inform that our beloved Tatineni Rama Rao has left for his heavenly abode at the early hours of April 20, 2022. May he be remembered by wife Tatineni Jayashree and children Chamundeswari, Naga Suseela, Ajay, and family."

T. Rama Rao carved a niche for himself in Indian cinema collaborating with iconic superstars in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages like Akkineni Nageswara Rao, NTR, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Sridevi, Shoban Babu, Krishna, Balakrishna, Jayapradha, Jayasudha, Mithun Chakraborty, Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt and many others. He directed several films during the course of his glorious career like Andhaa Kanoon, Nache Mayuri, Bramachari, Illalu, Navarathri, Muqabla, Pandani Jeevitham to name a notable few. It is to be noted that Rama Rao introduced 'Superstar' Rajinikanth in Bollywood in the 1983 film Andhaa Kaanoon, which also starred Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi and was a remake of 'Captain' Vijayakanth's Sattam Oru Iruttarai.

Outside of his role as a director, T. Rama Rao has also produced a few big Tamil films under his Sri Lakshmi Productions banner that included the 'Chiyaan' Vikram-starrers Dhill and Arul, 'Thalapathy' Vijay's Youth, Jayam Ravi's Unakkum Enakkum, and Vishal's Malaikottai.