Jagannatha Varma was born on 1 May 1939 in cherthala, Travancore.His parent Kerala Varma Thampuran, Ambalika.Varma joined the Kerala Police Force in 1963, before getting active in movies. He retired from Kerala Police as an S.P.Varma is an accomplished Kathakali artist, having mastered the art from Pallippuram Gopalan Nair Asan.He was also a percussionist, learned the art from Kalamandalam Raman Namboothiri after retiring from Government service. He was died 20 December 2016 in Thiruvananthapuram