New Delhi: Veteran Tamil filmmaker and actor Bharathiraja died at the age of 84 in Chennai early Wednesday after battling a prolonged illness. The Tamil Film Producer Council issued a statement on the artist’s demise.
“We regret to inform you that the legendary director Mr Bharathiraja, a former president and one of the senior members of our association, died early this morning,” the council said in the statement.
Bharathiraja started his career in films by assisting Kannada filmmaker Puttanna Kanagal and others such as P Pullaiah and M Krishnan Nair. In 1977, he directed and wrote his debut film, changing the techniques of filmmaking in Tamil cinema with 16 Vayathinile. The film starred Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Sridevi.
Unlike most films of that time, which were shot under artificial studio lighting, Bharathiraja shot the entire film in a real-life village, creating a new genre of rural cinema that carried the emotions of ordinary people.
Haasan, while talking about his experience of working with the director, honoured him by recalling a time when he was still an unknown actor. Haasan remembered falling ill due to working on multiple films at the same time. To help him sleep, Bharathiraja narrated the story of 16 Vayathinile to him as a bedtime story told to a child.
“Later, when he became a director for the first time, he forgot that he had told me that story while I was lying down, and he narrated the same story to me again,” he said. “I told him, ‘I know this story, I will act in it.’ That is 16 Vayathinile.”
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Life after 16 Vayathinile
He then came up with Kizhake Pogum Rail (1978). The story revolves around Panchali (MR Radhika) and Paranjothi (Sudhkar), who fall in love in a conservative village. When they were caught, Paranjothi was forced to shave off his head and parade on a donkey.
Eventually criticised for making films only for rural audiences, Bharathiraja moved towards making Sigappu Rojakkal (1978), a psychological crime thriller that he both directed and co-wrote. The film starred Haasan and Sridevi. The story revolved around a man who kills women after having sex with them. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.
The film was remade in Hindi as Red Rose (1980), with the same director and cinematographer, P S Nivas. The film starred Rajesh Khanna and Poonam Dhillon.
While he proved his versatile range as a director with experimental films like Nizhalgal (1980) and Tik Tik Tik (1981), he loved creating films set in rural landscapes, with movies like Alaigal Oivathillai (1981), Mann Vasanai (1983) and Mudhal Mariyathai (1985), capturing the romance and emotions of village life.
In 2001, he directed Kadal Pookkal (2001), which won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay. In 2008, he made his television debut with Thekkathi Ponnu, which was broadcast on Kalaignar TV. Following the success of the series, he went on to make one more soap opera, Appanum Aathaalum (2011).
Bharathiraja won six National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards and six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu’s CMO expressed sorrow and grief on X after the development.
“The demise of Director Imayam Mr Bharathiraja represents an irreplaceable and monumental loss to the Tamil film industry. I extend my deepest condolences to his grieving family, friends, members of the film fraternity, and fans. I pray that his soul rests in peace at the divine feet of the Lord,” it said.
For Pawan Kalyan, deputy CM of Andhra Pradesh, the loss is ‘irreplaceable for the Indian film industry’.
“With his extraordinary films, he not only won the hearts of Tamil cinema audiences but also those of Telugu, Hindi, and Kannada language viewers,” he posted on X. “Losing such a great creative director is an irreplaceable loss to the Indian film industry. Expressing profound grief over Shri Bharathiraja garu’s passing, I convey my deepest condolences to his family members and fans.”
(Edited by Saptak Datta)