A. Bhimsingh or Bhim Singh (1924–1978) was an Indian filmmaker who worked predominantly in

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywo ...

. Apart from Tamil, he made films in other languages that include 18 films in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

, 8 films in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

, 5 films in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

and 1 film in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

. Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, he started his film career as an assistant editor with the film-making duo

Krishnan–Panju R. Krishnan (1909–1997) and S. Panju (1915–1984), collectively referred to as Krishnan–Panju, were Indian film directors. The duo directed more than 50 films in South Indian languages and in Hindi. Early life R. Krishnan was born on 18 ...

in the late 1940s. Later, he became an assistant director before evolving as an independent director. His films mainly dealt with family and relationships. He made a series of films all of which started with the Tamil syllable ''pa'', mainly with

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Gan ...

Personal life

Bhimsingh was married to Sona, sister of Krishnan, in 1949. He had eight children with her; one of his eight children, B. Lenin is a film editor, and another son of his, B. Kannan, is a cinematographer, who is known for his frequent collaborations with many of

Bharathiraja Bharathiraja (born 17 July 1941) is an Indian film director and actor who works mainly in the Tamil film industry. Making his debut in 1977 with ''16 Vayathinile'', he is known for realistic and sensitive portrayals of rural life in his films. ...

. Later, Bhimsingh's eldest son Naren married Panju's daughter. Bhimsingh was also married to actress Sukumari in 1959 and has a son Suresh Bhimsingh.

Filmography

''Pa'' series

Many of Bhimsingh's films began with the syllable ''Pa'', starred Sivaji Ganesan, had music by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy, and lyrics by Kannadasan. According to Ganesan, Bhimsingh hardly imagined that he would make a series of films that began with the letter ''Pa'', implying that he "might have thought about it at first because his name starts with the same letter in Tamil. Later he might have decided to stay on with this letter for sentimental reasons."

As an actor

*1975:

Cinema Paithyam ''Cinema Paithiyam'' () is a 1975 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language Drama (film and television), drama film, directed by Muktha Srinivasan. The film stars Jaishankar and Jayachitra. It is a remake of the Hindi film Guddi (1971 film), ''Gudd ...

Recurring collaborators

Bhimsingh frequently associated with the same crew members. These included the assistant director duo Thirumalai–Mahalingam (who later became proper directors on films produced and written by Bhimsingh), cinematographer G. Vittal Rao and editor A. Paul Duraisingam. Ganesan appeared in 18 films directed by Bhimsingh, starting with '' Raja Rani'' (1956).

Accolades

National Film Awards *

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

: President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Tamil – '' Bhaaga Pirivinai'' * 1960: Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film in Tamil – ''

Kalathur Kannamma ''Kalathur Kannamma'' is a 1960 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by A. Bhimsingh and written by Javar Seetharaman. The film stars Gemini Ganesh, Savitri Ganesh and Kamal Haasan. It revolves around a couple — a wealt ...

'' *

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

: All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film – '' Paava Mannippu'' * 1961: Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature Film in Tamil – '' Pasamalar'' * 1964: Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature Film in Tamil – '' Pazhani''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhimsingh, A. Telugu film directors Tamil film directors 1924 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Indian film directors Malayalam film directors Hindi-language film directors Telugu film editors Tamil film editors People from Chittoor district Film directors from Andhra Pradesh Screenwriters from Andhra Pradesh Film producers from Andhra Pradesh People from Anantapur district Film editors from Andhra Pradesh 20th-century Indian screenwriters