Veteran Kannada film director SK Bhagavan dies after suffering from age-related issues

His official directorial debut happened when he co-directed Jedara Bale with Dorai Raj thus becoming the first directors to make James Bond-style movies in Kannada.

Veteran Kannada film director S.K Bhagavan died at a private hospital here. He was 90. Bhagavan was unwell for some time and was suffering from age-related issues.

S.K Bhagavan was born on 5 July 1933. He started his film career as an assistant to Kanagal Prabhakar Shastri in 1956 through the film Bhagyodaya. He 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.

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

The duo then directed movies like Kasturi Nivasa, Eradu Kanasu, Bayaludaari, Gaalimaatu, Chandanada Gombe, Hosa Belaku, Benkiya Bale, Jeevana Chaitra and more Bond-style movies such as Goa dalli C.I.D 999, Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999 and Operation Diamond Racket. Apart from Rajkumar, the duo directed many movies with Anant Nag and Lakshmi - most of which were based on novels.

After Dorai Raj's death, Bhagavan stopped directing for many years - their last film was Baalondu Chaduranga in 1996. In 2019, he made his comeback at 85 with Aduva Gombe, which marks the 50th film of his direction.

Apart from directing movies, Bhagavan has also acted in some movies like Hosabelaku, Bhagyodaya, Mangalasootra, Rowdy Ranganna, Vasantha Geetha, Sootradhaara, Haalu Jenu, Jeevana Chaithra, and Bangalore Mail.