Producer-director S Ramanathan passes away

S Ramanathan, one of the popular filmmakers of bygone era, passed away on Wednesday (January 9) in Chennai. He was 83 and survived by two daughters and son Sudhish.

He had given some of the memorable hits of all time like Gejje Pooje, Nanobba Kalla, Hindi films Bombay to Goa, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, etc. He had been associated with all the popular language movies of Indian cinema like Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi.

S Ramanathan had worked with big names like Dr Rajkumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan, Vishnuvardhan, Shivaraj Kumar, Dwarakish and many others in multiple languages.

Veteran actor and filmmaker Dwarkeesh has expressed his condolence over the death of S Ramanathan, who was known as Sirjee in film industry. He has said that it is a big loss for Indian film industry.

Ramanathan's career begun in Bangalore and he was actively involved in theatre in his early days. Later, he moved to Chennai and worked with many popular names of 50s like A Bhim Singh. His first film as a director started in Malayalam film Naadodikal. But it was Amitabh Bachchan starrer Bombay to Goa that earned him a national fame. Later, the duo worked in many films.

Mourning the death, Amitab Bachchan tweeted, "My director S Ramanathan of several films - Bombay to Goa, Mahaan, Giraftaar, Zamaanat, passes away suddenly .. no words of grief can express enough ..(sic)."