C. V. Sridhar

C. V. Sridhar Biography

C. V. Sridhar is a South Indian screenwriter and film director who has directed movies in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. He has directed many Rajendra Kumar movies in Hindi. Dil ek mandir (1963), Nazrana (1961) and Pyar Kiye Jaa (1966) are his masterpiece works in Bollywood. He has also directed Bollywood movies like Nai Roshni (1967), Saathi (1968), Dharti (1970), Duniya Kya Jane (1971), Gehri Chaal (1973), Jagruthi (1975), Seeta Geeta Datithe (1977) and Dil-E-Nadaan (1982). He has worked as an assistant in many hit movies of 1950’s, belonging to different languages before making a successful debut as a director. Dil ek mandir earned him two nominations at Filmfare Awards - Best Director and Best Story categories. He got Filmfare Award for Best Story for the movie, Gehri chaal, the movie in which Gemini Ganesan made a guest appearance.

Chithamur Vijayaraghavulu Sridhar, shortly known as C. V. Sridhar was born in 1933 in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu. His schooling was done at St. Joseph's Higher Secondary School, Chengalpattu where he got associated with theater works. In 1951, he approached P. Neelakantan with his story, Latchiyavathi. He was only 18 then. But his story was rejected. Avvai T. K. Shanmugam impressed by the story asked Sridhar to write its screenplay and dialogues. Later it was staged as Raththa Paasam and was one of the most successful dramas staged by TKS brothers. Thus began his successful association with TKS brothers, where he worked as a writer. When it was made to a movie with the same title, he was given the work to write its screenplay. Once again T. K. Shanmugam acted as his godfather who insisted on giving that job to Sridhar himself. It marked his entry to films too.

Later he worked as a dialogue writer and screenwriter for movies like Edhir Paradhathu, Maaman Magal, Maheswari, Amara Deepam, Maadharkula Manikkam, Enga Veettu Mahalatchumi, Yaar Paiyan, Manjal Mahimai, Uthama Puthiran and Punar Jenmam. In 1956, Sridhar turned producer with Venus pictures and he started his own production company Chithralaya in 1961. Kaadhalikka Neramillai is one of the biggest hits of Sridhar which was remade to Hindi as Pyar kiye jaa, a movie still remembered for its classic comedy scenes.

Ooty Varai Uravu, Nenjirukkum Varai and Sivantha Mann are his associations with Sivaji Ganesan. Sivanthaman was the first color movie in Tamil shooted at foreign locations and it was remade to Hindi as Dharti. He directed the last movie of MGR - Meenava Nanban.

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Updated: April 03, 2014