M. S. Sathyu

M. S. Sathyu Biography

M. S. Sathyu is a leading film director, stage designer and art director from Karnataka who works in Kannada and Hindi laguages. In 1973, his movie Garam Hawa and in 1983, Sookha have won National award for best film on national integration. Both are Hindi movies. In 1975, he was honoured with Padma Shri by government of India. He was the art director of very popular patriotic film based on India China war, Haqueeqat directed by Chetan Anand, for which he won Filmfare awards in Black and White category. In 1984, he received Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie for Sookha. In 1994 he received Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Stagecraft. He has also directed many short films, documentaries and tele films.

Sathyu was born in Mysore on July 6, 1930. He dropped his degree studies in 1952 to pursue a career in entertainment industry. Then he worked as a freelancer in animation for a couple of years and landed in film industry as an assistant of Bollywood director, Chetan Anand. He made his debut as an art director for Chetan Anand’s Haqueeqat which won him the first Filmfare award. In parallel he worked in theater as a director and designer at Delhi. His first significant work as a film director was Garam Hawa released in 1973 which made him an overnight star. This movie placed him among the list of young directors of new wave cinema and this movie brought him numerous awards as well. He also earned a nomination at prestigious Cannes film festival for the movie. It was one of the rarest movie in which noted poet, Kaifi Azmi appeared as an actor.

Among his plays, ‘Dara Shikoh’ is considered a modern classic. Other noted plays include – Mudrarkshas, Aakhri Shama, Mote Ram Ke Sathyagrah, Amrita and Rashmon. He has also directed television serials – Pratidhwani, Choli Daaman and Kayar.

Published: N/A

Updated: January 25, 2014