Director A. Jagannathan passes away

Oct 8, 2012 PGV



Veteran film director A. Jagannathan passed away on Sunday (Oct.7). He was 76. He died at a private hospital at Coimbatore where he had been undergoing treatment for respiratory ailments. He was cremated in the evening at Tirupur.



Jagannathan, who had directed more than 50 films in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, made his debut as director for ‘Mani Payal’ in 1973 after working as an assistant to Prakash Rao and P. Neelakantan for almost 15 films, most of them being MGR movies. It should be recalled that it was MGR who inaugurated the first show of ‘Mani Payal’.



Among the films directed by Jagannathan were ‘Idhayakani’ (MGR), ‘Vellai Roja’. (Sivaji Ganesan), ‘Mundru Mugam’, Thanga Magan (Rajinikanth) and ‘Kadhal Parisu’ (Kamal Haasan). He had also directed some TV serials, including the one on ‘Tamil Thatha’ U.Ve.Sa.



Mourning his death Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, in her message, said she had known Jagannathan from the days when he began his career as an associate director to P. Neelakantan. Jagannathan had worked as an associate director for ‘Kavalkaran’, ‘Kanavan’, ‘Yen Annan’ and ‘Kannan Yen Kadhalan’ which were among the films in which she co-starred with MGR.



Wife Rajamani, daughters Usha Devi and Pavithra Devi and son Arun Kumar survive Jagannathan.



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