The filmmaker KS Sethumadhavan who passed away in Chennai was a down-to-earth man who didn't pause to explore new themes to keep in tune with the changing times. Chattakkari and
Venal Kinavukal being the two best examples of this.
Here are some snippets:
On December 9, 1960, KS Sethumadhvan directed his first movie Weera Wijaya, it was a Sinhalese language movie starring Herbi Senewirathna, Jeevarani Kurukulasuriya, and Ananda Jayarathna.
According to information available on the internet, Veera Vijaya also happened to be the last Sinhala film produced in India (for a very long time) as the government had banned doing that.
Kamal Haasan made his debut as a 6-year-old child artiste in the 1960 film, Kalathur Kannamma, directed by A. Bhimsingh. However, he first received a regional Filmfare Award for acting for his role in the Malayalam film Kanyakumari (1974) directed by Sethumadhavan. Jagathy Sreekumar made his entry into the tinsel world with Kanyakumari.
Kamal Haasan was introduced to Malayalam movies by Sethumadhavan in his Kannum Karalum released in 1962.
Suresh Gopi made his debut as a child artist in 1965 by playing a small role in Odayil Ninnu directed by Sethumadhavan.
Gnanasundari (1961) was Sethumadhavan's first Malayalam movie.
His Tamil film Marupakkam won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1991 thereby becoming the first Tamil film to win the award.
In 1996, his Telugu film Stri won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.
Sethumadhavan has made movies in six languages. He is known as a screenwriter and producer too.
In an interview with rediff movies, Sethumadhavan had said, "I was an introvert. I do not know whether I was passionate about films when I was young. When I lost my father at eight, I could see his death like a film. While my mother and sisters cried, I just stood in a corner and watched everything as if I were watching a film. After my father died, we moved from Tamil Nadu to our native place, Palakkad, in Kerala. I wanted to become a sanyasi. But I came to Chennai and enrolled at Madras University. The prospect of going to the same office every day, and seeing the same faces frightened me."
Naalai Namadhe directed by Sethumadhavan starring MG Ramachandran and Latha released in 1975 was a remake of the Hindi movie Yaadon Ki Baaraat.
In the same interview, the director says about the movie, "My brother wanted to remake Yaadon Ki Baarat in Tamil and wanted MGR in the film. I was not interested in directing a remake, but when they went to meet MGR, he asked whether I was directing the film. My brother said yes. So I directed it. You know, the shooting was to begin at 9 am the first day. He arrived at 10.45 am. When he came in late the second day as well, I asked him, "What time will you come in tomorrow?" Everyone was shocked when I asked him that. I continued, 'If you want to come at 10.30 am, I will have the call sheet at 10.30 am, not at 9 am. We are wasting one-and-a-half hours.' He said he would arrive early. Next day, when we came at 8.55 am, he was already there, ready with his makeup."