Veteran film director CV Rajendran passes away

Veteran film director CV Rajendran, who was part of his brother, late CV Sridhar’s unit and the man behind memorable films like Galatta Kalyanam, passed away in Chennai, following age-related ailments on Sunday morning.  The 81-year-old filmmaker was reportedly suffering from a chronic illness and was recently admitted to Miot hospitals, where he breathed his last at 8 AM Sunday. 

Rajendran, who was the first cousin of CV Sridhar, started his career in 1960 by assisting the legendary director in the Tamil film Meenda Sorgham, which was produced by NSK Madhuram, the wife of late NS Krishnan. He later went on to work as Sridhar's assistant in Hindi film Dil Ek Mandir and the Tamil film Nenjam Marappathillai (1963). He was the associate director for blockbusters such as Kadhalikka Neramillai (1964) and Vennira Aadai (1965). Vennira Aadai was incidentally the debut film of J Jayalalitha. After seven years of training and gaining experience, Rajendran debuted as the director with Anubavam Pudhumai in 1967. He followed it with Galatta Kalyanam, a true-blue laughathon which also saw Sivaji Ganesan and Jayalalithaa share screen-space for the first time. 

CV Rajendran went on to direct nearly 60 films in the next two decades. His body of work was spread across the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi industries. Some of his signature films in Tamil include Needhi (1972), Raja (1972), En Magan (1974), and Ullassa Paravaigal (1980). Garjanam (Malayalam/1981), Chiranjeevi (Telugu/1985), Thrimurthy (Kannada/1975), and Dulhan (Hindi/1975) were some of his well-known films in other languages. 

In his career, Rajendran directed many stars like Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Jaishankar  Jeetendra, Vishnuvardhan, Rajkumar, and V Ravichandran. Also, it was Rajendran who introduced actor Prabhu in Sangili (1982). The film, which also featured Prabhu's father Sivaji Ganesan, was a remake of the 1976 Hindi film Kalicharan. Rajendran also produced two films in the nineties – Vietnam Colony (1994) and Once More (1997). The director was recently felicitated by the Nadigar Thilagam Fans Association for completing fifty years as a filmmaker. 

A native of Chittamur (which explains the C in his initials), Vijayaraghavulu Rajendran is survived by his wife Janaki, a son, and daughter. His last rites will be performed after the return of his son from the United States.