Bengaluru: Senior Kannada film director Srinivasa Krishna Iyengar Bhagavan, popularly known as Bhagavan, has been admitted to Jayadeva Hospital in Bengaluru, following age-related aliments.

Born to a Tamil Iyengar family at Mysuru in 1933, Bhagavan started acting in dramas as a youth and entered the film industry as an assistant to Kanagal Prabhakar Shastri in 1956. He later became an assistant director for the film ‘Sandhyaraaga’ which was released in 1966. He then teamed up with director Dorairaj and started directing films independently.

Bhagavan, who associated with Dorairaj, shot to fame as Dorai-Bhagavan duo. Together they directed 55 Kannada films including ‘Kasturi Nivasa’, ‘Eradu Kanasu’, ‘Bayalu Dari’, ‘Giri Kanye’, ‘Chandanada Gombe’, ‘Vasanta Geeta’, ‘Operation Diamond Racket’, ‘Hosabelaku’ and ‘Yarivanu’ among others.

It is to be noted that Thespian late Dr. Rajkumar had acted in lead roles in 32 films directed               by Bhagavan.

Bhagavan also acted in Vinay Rajkumar’s (son of Raghavendra Rajkumar) film ‘Ananthu Vs Nusrat’. With an experience of 65 years in the cinema industry, Bhagavan retired from directing movies after Dorairaj’s death.