The filmmaker directed defining films for Dr. Rajkumar and his sons, and made the silent classic Pushpaka Vimana.
Filmmaker Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, who died on October 4 aged 94, left a major mark on Kannada cinema and Indian filmmaking. His long creative association with actor Dr. Rajkumar’s family spanned comedies, family dramas and formal experimentation.
Rao directed the debut films of Rajkumar’s sons: Anand, starring Shivarajkumar, in 1986 and Chiranjeevi Sudhakara, featuring Raghavendra Rajkumar, in 1988. He also helped establish Puneeth Rajkumar as a child actor. In Eradu Nakshatragalu, seven-year-old Puneeth played dual roles and won a Karnataka State Award. Rao directed Rajkumar’s 200th film, Devatha Manushya, and made his Kannada debut with Halu Jenu in 1982. Chalisuva Modagalu, also released that year, became a major hit, while Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma showcased his comic craft.
Among Rao’s most unusual works was Pushpaka Vimana (1987), a silent film shot largely at Bengaluru’s Windsor Manor hotel. He compared the challenge of making such a film to climbing Mount Everest. The hotel entered popular culture through the movie, and Kamal Haasan said in 2022 that generations of viewers remembered it when passing the building.
Rajkumar entrusted Rao with key projects involving his family, and Shivarajkumar called Anand the beginning of his four-decade film career. Rao combined popular humour with observations of changing social and economic realities, leaving a body of work central to Kannada cinema’s history.