Shankanada Aravind is the latest Kannada actor to die due to Covid-19. The actor breathed his last at Victoria Hospital on Friday, 7 May. He was aged 70 and survived by three children – daughter and singer Manasa Holla, Prarthana, and son Abhishek.

He was battling for life for the last 10 days and passed away after suffering a heart attack, say reports. 

Shankanada Aravind
Shankanada Aravind and daughter-singer Manasa Holla.Twitter

Who was Aravind?
Aravind was born to Anand Rao and Saraswathi in 1950. He spent his early years in Koppa in the Chikkamagaluru district and Thirthahalli. Since his childhood days, he was fond of dramas and started acting in school plays by the age of 10.

He worked in dramas before making his acting debut in Kashinath's Aparichita in 1978. Thereafter, he worked in many of his movies and his performance in the 1984 film Anubhava won him the State Award for Best Actor in Supporting Role.

Also, Anubhava became his prefix following the massive success of this flick. He turned hero with Shankanada in 1986. However, it was Puneeth Rajkumar's National Award winning film Bettada Hoovu that earned him a lot of popularity.

He was seen in an important role in Puneeth Rajkumar's flick and ''Sun Light May Come' song became his identity card. Thereafter, he went on to work in over 250 films.

Aravind, then, got into production by funding Shh..Gup Chup and 6 to 6. Unfortunately, both the movies failed at the box office.

His wife and singer Rama passed away in January. His daughter Manasa Holla is a singer and music director.

Covid Deaths in Sandalwood
This is the 12 death in Sandalwood due to Covid-19 in the last two weeks. Director Renuka Sharma, Chandru, producer of movie Missed Call, Naveen Kumar, director of One Day, producer Annaiah, M Chandrashekhar, producer of Kiccha Sudeep's Ranna, R Srinivas, poster designer Mustan, producer Ramu, Dr DS Manjunath, producer of Chemistry of Kariyappa, Ramu Kanagal, son of legendary filmmaker Putanna Kanagal and actor Gajaraj have died due to the pandemic.