Legendary filmmaker Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, died at the age of 95 in Chennai, following health complications on Saturday night. His death was condoled by leading figures of the South Indian film industry, including Kamal Haasan, S. S. Rajamouli, Nag Ashwin and Jr NTR, among others who remembered his distinctive filmmaking and lasting influence on cinema. Andhra’s Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, also expressed grief over the filmmaker’s passing, remembering his roots in Udayagiri in Nellore district and his influence on the film industry.
Singeetham the visionary behind Pushpaka Vimanam and Aditya 369, Apoorva Sahodarulu, Mayuri to name a few of his 60 films from his illustrious 60 years in the South Indian film industry. His final film, Sing Geetham, a musical fantasy produced by Nag Ashwin, reached theatres in June 2026, when he was 94. It was a dream he had carried for close to four decades.
Singeetham’s fans know how much he loved pushing film in new directions. In Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989), he gave the separated-twins formula a twist by casting Kamal Haasan as one twin who is a little person. In Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990), he reunited with Haasan, his long-time collaborator, for a comedy built around four lookalike brothers. With Aditya 369, he sent Indian cinema into time travel for the first time in Indian cinema, with Nandamuri Balakrishna in a double role.
Sing Geetham his 61st film was different, because it is a project close to his heart that he has wanted to make for over four decades. In an interview he said that the idea came to him long ago, so why not make a whole film in which every line of dialogue is sung, he said and he did. Musicals have usually blended songs and dance into the story, a tradition popularised in the 1930s by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, he mentioned.
Nag Ashwin also revealed that Singeetham had wanted to make the film with Kamal Haasan first but it never came together then. According to the producer, Singeetham had even pitched it to Kamal before Pushpak. The story is set in Kuberapuram, a mining village cursed to converse only through singing. Nag Ashwin drew a parallel with Pushpaka Vimana: just as that film was silent because the situations needed no dialogue, the songs here arise naturally from the story. He described the film as something unlike anything made before or likely to be made again.
His creative fire never dimmed. Nag Ashwin shared a message Singeetham sent last month, revealing a late-night idea for a new script with a poetic title about a fruit cutting a knife which shows that he was still active.
Even at 94, Singeetham was still creating. He also mentioned in an interview that he had many scripts in mind and was willing to bring them to the screen.Nag Ashwin shared a message Singeetham sent last month, revealing a late-night idea for a new script titled “A fruit cuts the knife.”
Sing Geetham was a fitting farewell…a final song from a filmmaker who never stopped dreaming.
