Veteran filmmaker K Bhagyaraj dies at 73.Veteran Tamil filmmaker, actor and writer K Bhagyaraj, who died on Saturday in Chennai due to a heart attack, was laid to rest with state honours at the Besant Nagar crematorium on Sunday.
Bhagyaraj began his film career as an assistant to director Bharathiraja, taking on brief junior artiste roles in films like 16 Vayathinile before writing scripts for Bharathiraja’s Kizhake Pogum Rayil and Tik Tik Tik. He made his directorial debut with Suvarilladha Chiththirangal in 1979.
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K Bhagyaraj went on to carve out a rare niche as an actor-auteur, frequently writing, directing and starring in his own films. His work was known for elaborate, witty scripts laced with double entendre and rooted in everyday social situations, with Bhagyaraj himself often playing a self-effacing underdog character. His breakout came with Mundhanai Mudichu in 1983, which won him the Filmfare Best Actor award and introduced actress Urvashi to Tamil cinema. The film was remade in Hindi as Masterji. He later introduced Urvashi’s sister Kalpana through Chinna Veedu in 1985, and several of his hits, including Andha 7 Naatkal and Thooral Ninnu Pochchu, were remade in Hindi.
Bhagyaraj was first married to actress Praveena, who died in 1983, and later to actress Poornima Jayaram, with whom he had two children, Saranya and Shanthanu, both of whom acted in films. He remained active in recent years, taking roles in Kanithan, Thupparivaalan and Ponmagal Vandhal, and received the SIIMA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
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