K. S. Sethumadhavan Biography 
K. S. Sethumadhavan is a famous film director of Malayalam who has won many state and national awards. He has been one of the leading film makers during the golden era of Malayalam movies. He has also directed a few movies in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu of which ‘Julie’s name of course comes first. Whole throughout his career he has directed more than 60 movies of which many are still regarded as landmark movies. The best instance is ‘Chattakari’ released in 1974, which he later remade to Hindi as Julie and to Telugu as Miss Julie Prem Katha. The central character was played by Lakshmi in all these three languages and the movie was a screenplay based on the novel written by Pamman with the title, Chattakari. When the movie was released in Bollywood, it was regarded as one of the bold subjects during the time and a trendsetter of woman oriented subjects. The movie also featured Sri Devi as a teenager and recorded the first English song for the first time in a Hindi movie, My heart is beating.
Among Malayalam film directors, his name always comes first. Actor Sathyam – Director Sethu team has given many landmark movies to Malayalam including Odayil ninnu, Stree, Yakshi, Anubhavangal Paalichakal and Kadal Paalam. Other noted Malayalam movies include – Oppol, Jeevikkan marannu poya stree, Azhakulla seleena, Thettu, Pani theeratha veedu, Jnana sundari, Oru penninte katha, Koottu kudumbam, Sthanarthy saramma, Karakaana kadal, Aranazhika neram and Achanum baapayum. He has also directed one Oriya movie, Stri. He was the first director to introduce Kamal Hassan in a Malayalam movie. It happened with the movie, Kannum Karalum in 1962 as a child artist, one year later his Tamil debut. Kamal played lead role in this movie and in 2012, his 50th glorious year in Malayalam cinema was celebrated in a grand way. However no print is available for this movie. Surprisingly his second movie was also directed by Sethu which happened to be his first Malayalam movie as an adult actor too. The movie Kanyakumari gave him the first Filmfare award in his career too!
Though his debut movie in Bollywood was a huge hit, he couldn’t maintain his success strategy later. He has also directed a few more movies like Zindagi Jeene Ke Liye, Afsana Do Dilon Ka and Yeh hai zindagi. He debut as a film director with Veeravijaya, a Singhalese film in 1960. His debut Malayalam movie was Jnana sundari, which is often regarded as a landmark movie. He won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Director 4 times - Aranazhika neram (1970), Karakanakkadal (1971), Pani Theeratha Veedu (1972) and Oppol (1980). He has won National award 3 times. Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration for the movie, Achanum Bappayum (1973), National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1991 for Tamil movie, Marupakkam and Best regional film in Telugu for Stri in 1996. He has also served as the jury member of Kerala and National awards. He has been honoured with highest award in Malayalam cinema, J. C. Daniel Award in 2009 for his contributions to Malayalam cinema.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 25, 2014
.jpeg "Lakshmi Menon (actress)")
