Even when the charismatic MGR and versatile Sivaji were ruling the roost, the lithe and not so attractive Nagesh managed to attract the crowds to movie houses. Even today the name evokes a mixed response in the minds of Tamil filmgoers, not just as a comedian who had them rolling in the aisles, but also as a character artiste who moved them to tears with his sensitive performance in films like 'Neer Kumizhi' and 'Edhir Neechal'.

Born in a Brahmin community, the son of Brahmin Madhwa parents, Krishna Rao and Rukumani ammal he walked out of his house telling his parents that he would be back only after establishing himself in some career. In Chennai he stayed in a one-room bed-sit at West Mambalam (then a remote area) with lyricist Vaali and actor Srikanth. He found a small time job in the Railways and this was not sufficient to keep himself and to feed him three meals a day.

One day he saw a Tamil play 'Kambar Ramayanam' enacted by his colleagues and he felt that he could do a good job and asked the secretary of the railways cultural association to give him a role to act. He was given a role of a man suffering from stomach pain. MGR then chief guest seeing this play, in his speech praised Nagesh for his performance. From then onwards Nagesh played small roles in various drama troupes and kept himself busy.

It was producer Balaji who spotted him and gave him his first break in films. The most memorable performance of Nagesh out of the 1000 odd films he has acted in is his role in 'Thiruvillayadal' in which he speaks a soliloquy that is one of the most memorable scenes in the film. He played a poet falling on bad times in the film. When Sivaji who played Siva in the film saw it he asked the director to retain it in full without a cut.

Directors like Sridhar and Balachander were those who brought out the acting talents of Nagesh. In 'Kathalika Neramillai' Nagesh narrates a story to Baliah and the way it was narrated brought down the theatre in laughter. In 'Apoorva Raagangal' he plays a drunkard who talks to his shadow and then finishes his dialogue by saying 'Cheers' and throwing the cup on the wall. In the theatres where the film was shown the audience imitated him and threw cups on the wall of the lobby during interval. Yet another memorable performance was as the villianous comic pimp in 'Thillana Mohannambal' starring Sivaji and Padmini. More recently he played a dead man in 'Magalir Mattum' produced by Kamalhassan and the scenes involving Nagesh were hilarious.

Nagesh is a self-taught man who believes that an actor can learn from watching life and it's characters. He often sat in his car in busy roadsides and watched the people on the streets to grasp the mannerisms of people that he would later reproduce on screen.

On the personal side Nagesh was the only comedian to have acted with both MGR and Sivaji and he has prudently invested his money in real estate. Later on he had a fall out with MGR and it led to his removal from many films. He became an alcoholic and began to slide down in his career. Nagesh theatre owned by him in Chennai was on the verge of getting seized for non-payment of dues but he met MGR and was bailed out.

Though financially he was saved his career had become a thing of the past and he then moved on to character roles after getting himself cured of alcoholism. He has had to face many sorrows in his personal life the greatest tragedy being when he drove down to see his mother in his new imported car stacked with money and found his mother's last rites being performed on the banks of Amravathi.

His son Anand Babu known for his dancing prowess made an impressive start as a hero but soon lost out and is now said to be hitting the bottle. For having married a Christian, Nagesh was kept out of his family. He still exhibits glimpses of the old Nagesh in the rare film appearances he makes but in his personal life he remains a loner.