K. Ramnoth

K. Ramnoth Biography

K. Ramnoth was a cinematographer and film director associated with Tamil cinema, since the early talkies in the 1930s. He started off as a cinematographer in the early 1930s, and later handled both cinematography and film direction. By 1950s, he turned a very successful film director of Tamil cinema. But he passed away in 1956, following the failure of his directorial venture Viduthalai (1954). He was only 44 then. As a film director he has worked with many film studios such as Gemini Studios, Central Studio, Jupiter, Pakshiraja Studios and Modern Theatres. His directorial venture – Marmayogi in 1951 starring MGR was the first Tamil film to be given an ‘Adults-Only’ certificate, due to the presence of a ghost in the movie.

Ramnoth was born in 1912 at Poojapura, Thiruvananthapuram, now a part of capital city of Kerala. He completed his graduation in Kerala, and later moved to Chennai in search of a job. He started as an assistant in Kodak, and wrote many articles about photography for various publications. He sent one of his articles titled Sound and Shadow to a publication jointly owned by Muthuswami Iyer and A. K. Sekhar. It resulted in his joining in film field.

In 1933, the trio received a letter from V. Shantaram – the legendary filmmaker of Hindi films, seeking their help for his Tamil production venture, Sita Kalyanam. Ramnoth worked as cinematographer and assistant director for this film, marking his debut. During his initial phase, his name was credited as K. Ramanathan. The trio later produced some of the successful films like Markandeya (1935) and Pathuga Pattabishekam (1936), cementing their position in film industry in the early talkies. Ramnoth introduced miniature photography for the first time in Tamil films in 1938.

Published: July 28, 2018

Updated: July 28, 2018