Art director and costume designer P Krishnamoorthy, who has worked in over 55 films in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Malayalam and English, passed away on 13th December 2020. The last rites of the National Award winning art director will happen at his residence in Madipakkam in Chennai.
Krishnamoorthy, known for his films in Tamil like Bharathiraja’s ‘Nadodi Thendral’ and Balu Mahendra’s ‘Vanna Vanna Pookkal’, has won five National Film Awards—three for Best Art Direction and two for Best Costume Design. The veteran has won three national awards for best art direction and two for best costume design. He has also bagged Kerala state film award five times. Some on his more recent films include ‘Imsai Arasan 23rd Pulikecei’ in 2006, for which he won a state award and director Bala’s ‘Naan Kadavul’ in 2009. He excelled in numerous fields of cinema corresponding to artwork path, costume design and manufacturing designing for over 50 movies in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi.
Two of his National Award for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design came for his work in Tamil film ‘Bharati’ starring Sayaji Shinde and Devayani, directed by Gnana Rajasekaran in 2000. Krishnamurthy was born in Poompuhar close to Thanjavur. He gained a gold medal from the Madras College of Arts and have become an artwork director with GV Iyer’s Kannada movie ‘Hamsa Geetha’. Krishnamurthy got here to Malayalam by way of Lenil Rajendran’s ‘Swathithirunal’. Krishnamurthy’s final movie was ‘Ramanujan’ directed by Jnanarajasekharan.
