Legendary Kannada director SK Bhagavan died at the age of 90 at Jayadeva Hospital in Bengaluru on Monday morning. The mortal remains of the director have been placed at Ravindra Kalakshetra for public homage.
Born in 1933, SK Bhagavan was born as Srinivasa Krishna Iyengar. He was part of the theatre group Hirannayya Mitra Mandi. In 1956, he started his film journey as assistant to Kanagal Prabhakar Shastri before working with the direction team in Sandhya Raga in 1966. The film starred Dr Rajkumar and Uday Kumar. However, the film's direction was officially credited to AC Narasimha Murthy with whom he co-directed Rajadurgada Rahasya. Bhagavan’s official debut was Jedara Bale (1968).
Bhagavan later teamed up with cinematographer Dorairaj and the duo went on to become famous as Dorai – Bhagavan in the Kannada film industry. The duo has helmed over 50 Kannada films, out of which 20 were based on novels. They were also known for making films that drew inspiration from James Bond. Some of the films they made include Jedara Bale, Kasturi Nivasa, Eradu Kanasu, Bayalu Daari, Chandanada Gombe, Vasantha Geetha, Hosa Belaku, Operation Diamond Rocket, Nanobba Kala, Gaali Matu, Benkiya Bale, Yarivanu, Jeevana Chaitra, and Mangalya Bandhana.
However, their last film together was Baalondu Chaduranga in 1995 before Dorai Raj died in 2000. On the other hand, Bhagwan, who was active in the film industry for about 65 years, stayed away from direction after Dorairaj's death. In 2019, he made his comeback at the age of 85 with Aduva Gombe, which marked is 50th film as a director
Dorai and Bhagavan were also close to the Rajkumar family. The duo had cast the actor as the lead in 30 films. Apart from Dr Rajkumar, Bhagavan has worked with Uday Kumar, Narasimha Raju, B Saroja Devi, Jayanthi, Rajesh, Anant Nag, Dr Vishnuvardhan, Shankar Nag, Ambareesh, Lakshmi, Aarti, Jayanthi, Rajesh, Kalpana, Manjula, and Malashree among others. Besides direction, Bhagavan has also acted in films like Hosabelaku, Bhagyodaya, Mangalasutra, Rowdy Ranganna, and Vasanta Geeta.
The duo's work has won Puttanna Kanagal Award from the State Government of Karnataka for the year 1995–96, the Dr Rajakumar Souhardha award in the year 2010, and Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Award as well.
Bhagavan is survived by two sons and a daughter.