Veteran film director SK Bhagavan hospitalized

Bengaluru: Veteran film director SK Bhagavan has been hospitalized due to age-related ailments. He is 89.

He was feeling unwell for the past few days and after his condition kept deteriorating, he was hospitalized.

S.K Bhagavan started acting on stage dramas with Hirannaiah Mithra Mandali at a very young age. He began his film career as an assistant to Kanagal Prabhakar Shastri in 1956 through the film Bhagyodaya and then went on to direct his debut movie ‘Sandhya Raga’ in 1966 though officially its direction was credited to A.C. Narasimha Murthy.

However, the next year, he was credited as the co-director of ‘Rajadurgada Rahasya’ (1967) alongside A C Narasimha Murthy. He also appeared in the role of the antagonist in the 1968 movie Bangalore Mail.

Bhagavan’s official directorial debut happened when he co-directed Jedara Bale (1968) with Dorai Raj under the name Dorai–Bhagavan. Thus becoming the first director to make James Bond-style movies in Kannada.