Vempati Venkat, son of the late Kuchipudi doyen Vempati Chinna Satyam, died of a cardiac arrest at his Chennai residence on Tuesday morning. He was 55.
Venkat is survived by his wife Srimoy and children Lakshmi Kameswari and Aneesh Venkat. Venkat was the secretary of the Chennai-based Kuchipudi Art Academy which was established by his father in 1963 to promote the dance form. He was one among five children of Chinna Satyam.
In 1997, Venkat quit his corporate job to help his father run the academy. He was instrumental in conducting performances in several countries, and helped many young dancers gain recognition by offering them an opportunity to perform abroad.
He was responsible for running both the Kuchipudi Art Academy in Chennai as well as offering Kuchipudi classes at their house in their ancestral village of Kuchipudi, in collaboration with Krishna University (KRU-Machilipatnam).
Sangeet Natak Academy Awardee Bala Kondala Rao (Visakhapatnam), a disciple of Guru Vempati, mourned his death. “Venkat was running the academy in Chennai, carrying his father’s legacy forward till his last breath. His death is a great loss for the Kuchipudi dance fraternity,” Mr. Kondala Rao said.
Kuchipudi-based Sangeet Natak Academy awardee Vedantam Radheshyam condoled Venkat’s death. “Mr. Venkat was known for organising Kuchipudi dance performances across the world, a responsibility handed to him by his father. It is a shock for us,” Mr. Radheshyam told The Hindu.
Members of the ‘Save Kuchipudi’ campaign, which was launched by Venkat in 2020 to extend support to dance teachers, mourned his death.
