Kochi, March 25 (IANS) Hugely popular young actor Jishnu Raghavan who was battling with cancer for a few years, passed away on Friday morning at a private hospital here, said his family.
He was 36 years and survived by his wife, a daughter and his parents.
His father Raghavan is a popular yesteryear actor who still dons the greasepaint.
Jishnu was identified with cancer more than two years back and since then he has been very active in the social media airing the progress of his ailment.
Even though he acted as a child artiste in 1987, it was in 2002 that he burst into the Malayalam film "Nammal", which was a runaway hit. Since then he acted in 17 films before his tryst with cancer began.
He returned to the films after a round of treatment but had to go back for treatment. In all, he acted in 21 films, including a Tamil and a Hindi film.
Sources close to the actor told IANS that the place and date of his funeral is yet to be decided.
"His parents hail from Kannur and it's not yet decided where the funeral will take place," said the source who did not wish to be identified.
Even though the actor and his parents reside in the state capital, for the past several months the entire family had moved to Kochi to facilitate his treatment.
A mechanical engineer by training, his popular films include "Choonda", "Freedom", "Parayam", "Nerariyan CBI", "Powran" and "Chakkara Muthu".
Jishnu's co-actor in a few films Bhavana expressed shock at the news of his demise.
"He was very active in the social media and giving regular updates and expressed hopes that he will soon return to the industry. Now, see what has happened," said Bhavana.
Ace character artiste Jagdish said Jishnu was probably one of the most well-behaved actors of his generation.
"Despite being the son of an actor, he never ever had any airs at all. He was so well behaved and even while he was battling cancer, he used to be a solace for actor Innocent (Lok sabha member from Chalakudy and president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes) when he underwent cancer treatment. He was always positive and showed a strong sense of determination in the fight against cancer," said Jagdish.