indian cinema heritage foundation

K S R Das

Director
  • Born: 5 January, 1936 (Venkatagiri, Nellore)
  • Died: 8 June, 2012 (Chennai)
  • Primary Cinema: Telugu
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K S R Das, also known as K S R Doss, was a prolific maker of Telugu and Kannada films, known for helming several high profile blockbusters. 

Born on 5, January, 1936 in Venkatgiri, he started his film career as an assistant editor. He worked in various capacities in nearly 40 films before making his directorial debut with Loguttu Perumallakeruka (1966). Since then he made over 30 films with Krishna like Takkari Donga Chakkani Chukka (1969) and Mosagallaku Mosagadu (1971), with NTR (Yugandhar, 1979), as well as with Vishnuvardhan, Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth. He was described as a producer's director by Dwarakish who had brought him to Karnataka to make Kalla Kulla (1975). Among these the western inspired Mosagallaku Mosagadu became quite the rage. Also notable was the Vijayalalitha starrer Rowdy Rani (1970). He later remade it in Hindi as Rani Mera Naam (1972). He is credited with making over a hundred films in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi languages. He was a mentor figure to D Rajendra Babu who worked as an assistant director for him. 

He was awarded with the Puttanna Kanagal Award for his contributions to Kannada cinema. He passed away at the age of 75 on 8 June, 2016 in Chennai. A resident of Bangalore for a long time, he had shifted to Chennai a few years before his passing.