Desk Reports:
Veteran Kannada Actor Harish Roy Passes Away at 55 After Battle with Thyroid Cancer
It’s a gut-punch for cinema fans today. Harish Roy, the man who brought ‘Chacha’ to life in the KGF films, is gone. He passed away on November 6, 2025, after a long, hard fight with cancer.
He died in Bengaluru, at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.
We all knew him from ‘KGF’, and of course, his unforgettable role as ‘Don Rai’ in ‘Om’. But behind those powerful performances, he was fighting a devastating, private war. It was Stage 4 Thyroid Cancer.
And it was relentless. The illness didn’t just stay in one place; it had moved to his stomach and other organs. He went through chemo, he had palliative care—they tried everything. But in the end, it wasn’t enough.
This fight wasn’t just physical. It was financial, and it was brutal.
He’d talked about it openly. The cost was staggering. Can you imagine? A single injection cost over ₹3.5 lakh. He was looking at a total bill somewhere near ₹70 lakh. The weight of that, on top of the illness itself… it’s hard to even think about.
Harish Roy was more than his famous roles. His real name was Harish Acharya, and he came from a well-known goldsmith family in Udupi.
That’s where he’s going now. They are taking him from Bengaluru back home to Ambalapady. Back to his roots for the final farewell.
It’s just a massive loss. A true veteran who worked across Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu films. He leaves behind a hole in the industry that won’t be easy to fill. A truly sad day.
