Cho Ramaswamy passes away after prolonged illness at Chennai's Apollo Hospital

New Delhi: Popular Tamil actor-turned-politician Cho Ramaswamy, who was a close friend and advisor to former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, passed away at Chennai's Apollo Hospital. He was 82.

His body has been taken to his residence at MRC Nagar, where his friends and family and public will pay their last respect to him.

Srinivasa Iyer, popularly known as Cho Ramaswamy, breathed his last at 4:15am at Apollo Hospitals, where he was admitted. He is survived by his wife, a son and daughter.

A celebrated comedian, Ramaswamy started his career as a theatre artiste. One of his popular plays is "Mohammed Bin Tuglak", which he later directed for the silver screen.

Some of his other popular films include "Kazhugu", "Galatta Kalyanam" and "Gowravam".

Ramaswamy, who was also the editor of a popular Tamil magazine, had been suffering from health-related ailments for quite some time.