Chennai, When asked why he chose to make a full-length silent film like ‘Pushpaka Vimanam’ in an Indian cinematic era utterly defined by loud dialogues and musical melodramas, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao once famously countered, “Why not?”
Refusing to fade quietly into retirement, Rao directed and released his final film, ‘Sing Geetham’, just this year. That two-word retort was the pulse of a filmmaker who spent a lifetime dismantling the rulebook. Haasan, a kindred spirit in artistic rebellion, captured Rao’s relentless curiosity perfectly. “Dying young need not be a tragedy. Rao remained fiercely devoted to his craft until his final hours. Rao didn’t just make movies; he expanded the very vocabulary of the medium.
Lyricist Snehan recalled that even until 7 pm the evening before his death, the director was actively conversing with his daughters and attending to his work a testament to an artist whose creative engine never powered down. With his passing at Chennai’s Kauvery Hospital due to ill health, the industry bids farewell to a nonagenarian who possessed the most audacious mind on any set.
Thanks to that mind, brimming with curiosity like a child even at 95-years-old, his frequent collaborator, actor Kamal Haasan, poignantly noted when he came to pay respects on Sunday that the legendary director “decided to die young”. It can be glorious,” Haasan said, reflecting on a mentor who refused to let his imagination age. Filmmaker Srinu Vaitla called his body of work “timeless,” born of an unmatched passion for storytelling.
Rao leaves behind a legacy that challenges every future filmmaker to look at the impossible, shrug off the conventions, and ask: Why not?
