Director & Producer is no more

Chennai, May 30: The famous Tamil producer Mukta Srinivasan (90), who was a guru of several directors like Balachander and Mani Ratnam, died on Tuesday night. Mukta Films banner has produced over 67 films in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi. His 'Nayakan' film has been nominated for the Oscars for the first time since India.

Actors Rajinikanth, Kamalhasan, director Maniratnam and others were deeply saddened by his death.

According to the sources, The veteran film-maker directed his first film Mudhalaali in 1957. Starring S.S. Rajendran, the film won the national award for the best feature film in Tamil that year.

Srinivasan started producing films with his elder brother Muktha V Ramaswamy under the banner of Muktha Films in 1961. Muktha Films produced the landmark 1987 film Nayakan by Mani Ratnam, which is one of only two Indian films listed by Time magazine in the Best 100 Films of All Time.

He won several state and central government awards for his work. He also wrote dozens of books and short stories about cinema, history, and science in both English and Tamil. In 1994, he published an encyclopedia on Tamil cinema, titled Tamil Thiraipada Varalaru.