R C Sakthi

R.C Sakthi was an Indian actor and a filmmaker. Sakthi was born in the year 1940 in a hamlet in the Ramanathapuram district near Paramakudi. Sakthi died at the age of 75. Sakthi’s father was in a police department, and his mother was a housewife. Sakthi had a proclivity for acting since his childhood. He was not good in studies. In his teenage, he started a drama company along with friends. Their first play was called the Vaazhkai Vaazhvatharkae in which he portrayed the role of a villain. Sakthi’s acting skills were appreciated by the entire village, and thus, he decided to try his luck in cinema. During his initial days in the film industry, he only appeared in minor roles. Apart from his struggle in the film, Sakthi was also doing stage roles too. He worked as an assistant to the script writer Villupaattu Subbhu Aarumugam. Under him, Sakthi got a chance to work as an assistant director in Tamil movie, Porsilai. During this time,

Sakthi came in contact to Thangappan, who was planning to produce a movie at the same time and insisted Sakthi to work on his project. The movie was titled Annai Velankanni. Sakthi worked as an assistant director in the movie and also learned the art of scriptwriting. Sakthi directed his first movie in the year 1972. The movie was called Unarchigal and was based on sexually transmitted diseases. Due to issues with the lead hero, the movie was delayed for four years and was released in the year 1976. Sakthi released a movie called Manidharil Ithanai Nirangala, starring Kamal Hassan and after that, they became best friends. Later in the year 1979, he directed the movie Dharma Yuddham starring Sridevi and Rajinikanth. Despite his initial success as a director, Sakthi moved to work on smaller budget movies. Because of this, Rajnikant and Kamal Hasan refused to work in his movies. But Kamal did a cameo appearance in his movies. In 1998, Sakthi was short listed to work as a supporting actor in the movie Marudhanayagam on Kamal Hasan’s request.

Ainthu Rojakkal was Sakthi’s last work which was a short film starring Kamal Hasan and was released in December 2013. Sakthi died on 23 February 2015 and was survived by a son and two daughters.