Kannada actor Mohan Juneja, who was recently seen in Kannada blockbuster movie KGF: Chapter 2, passed on Saturday morning, May 7. He was suffering from liver-related issues.
Who Was Mohan Juneja?
A native of Turuvekere district, Mohan was born in Bengaluru. As his father was a civil engineer at the BWSSB, he did his schooling in multiple places. However, studies was never his cup of tea. "My father wanted me to become an engineer like him, but I was poor at studies," he had said in an interview earlier.
By his own admission, he used to watch three movies a day which attracted him towards art. He joined drama school to understand the in and out of theatre.
Mohan's Journey
Mohan made his debut with Shankar Nag's Wall Poster, directed by GV Iyer. This helped him to get an opportunity to work under Iyer for a few movies. "I assisted Iyer for five movies including Bhagavad Geeta and Anuragha Geethe," Mohan had said.
Having associated with theatre, Mohan Juneja was comfortable in writing, make-up department and acting. He worked in many credited and uncredited roles while also writing dialogues for movies and TV serials.
"I used to write dialogues at the night and act in the day. However, I continued to struggle to get an identity," he added. However, Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's TV serial Vaatara gave him a much-needed break.
"It ran for over 1000 episodes and my role of Parandhama finally gave me an identity," he had recalled.
In his career spanning over decades, Mohan act in over 100 movies. His role of Madhumaga in 'Chellata' earned him a lot of popularity. People enjoyed his 'Urdu-mixed-Kannada spoken in Shivaji Nagar style.
Though he appeared in a few scenes in Yash's KGF: Chapter 1, it left an everlasting impact on the viewers. The dialogue - The one who comes with a gang is a gangster. He always comes alone. Monster – made him a household name.
He was also seen in the same role in the sequel KGF 2.