In the recently concluded Bengaluru International Film Festival [ BIFfes ] 2026 the tribute & remembrance to veteran Cinematographer S.Ramachandra Aithal was one of the highlight.

on this occasion his film with Girish Kasarvali Directed “Kraurya” was screened where Kasarvalli spoke about his association with Ramachandra that out of his 15 films Directed 8 films Dop was Ramachandra & mentioned that he used to always say & work beautiful cinematography is not capturing & showing beauty but to show reality by quoting one of instance during “Gulabi Talkies” film shooting where he insisted to shoot in afternoon sunlight which not much ideal or most of the cinematographers avoid.

BIFfes former Artistic Director S.Vidyashankar spoke that Ramachandra was support system to the film festival from its inception days.

Kraurya film core team like Writer TN Seetaram ,Editor MN Swamy , Associate Director Sawanth, artistes Swathi & Vishwas was present.

Ramachandra’s daughter Varsha Ramachandra & Ramachandra’s brother Shankar Aithal with many of his family members, friends, Film Industry fraternity like P Shesadri ,GS Bhaskar ,Manohar Joshi , artiste KS Sridhar ,SFS Shashidhar etc were notable who were present on this remembrance occasion.

Later panel discussion was also conducted where Girish Kasarvali , Jaimala & Ramachandra’s brother Shankar Aithal spoke about S.Ramachandra with other fellow panelists S.V.Rajendra Singh babu , Poornima Rajkumar in the presence of K.V.Prabhakar Media Advisor to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

If one recall or go thru S.Ramachandra Filmography and his contributions, support system as Cameraman to mainly Awards-Film Festival Circuits ,Independent ,Writers ventured to Film makers, Debutants is very huge where the list goes like

P.V.Nanjaraj Urs , B.V.Karanth, Shivaram Karanth, Chandrashekhar Kambara ,Girish Kasaravali , T.S.Ranga , T.S.Nagabharana , Maruthi Shivaram , P.Lankesh ,Ramadas Naidu, Suresh Heblikar ,Vadiraj , Krishna Masadi ,Shankar nag ,Lokesh ,Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar, Kodlu Ramakrishna, Vasanth Mokashi ,Girish Karnad ,Kavitha Lankesh ,B.Suresh ,Roopa Iyer ,Sadashiv Shenoy etc

Not many know in todays digital era that earlier to shoot film, raw stocks was needed & where many film makers were shooting in16mm negatives which was less economical compared to 35 mm and Ramachandra was the first or only choice and adaptable to shoot in all types of films gauges as per budgets.

S.Ramachandra also worked in notable Commercial films genre like Geethapriya’s “Hombisulu” ,Joesimons “Hong Kongnali Agent Amar” ,Vijaya Reddy’s “Huli Hebbuli”, K.V.Jayarams “Mududida Thavare Aralithu” etc.

And his notable Tele Serials was Malgudi Days, Stone Boy ,Griha Banga , Malegalalli Madumagalu etc.

S.Ramachandra won Best Cinematography National Film Awards for the film ” Rishya Shringa” and Karnataka State Film Awards for films Sankalpa ,Rishya Shringa ,Grahana & Mane etc

Noted Cameraman’s like B.C.Gowrishankar ,Nagaraj Advani , H.M.Ramachandra etc worked under S.Ramachandra as Assistants and he also served as President of the Karnataka Film Cinematographers Association.

on this eve had quick chat with B.Suresh about his working experiences with S.Ramachandra and he mentioned in Ghattashradha where he acted as teenage young artiste also Assistant Director they made crane out of dry coconut tree branches and leaf to shoot and in “Malgudi days” tele serial created Huge Glass & Metal Box to shoot under water sequences, Train Boogie sets mounted on the huge lorry or canter and lot of spontaneous ideas & instructions by S Ramachandra for the artistes to get right expressions in the films like Mane & Artha and his contributions like above goes innumerable.

Earlier in one of the Interview Film maker Joesimon had mentioned he required person like S.Ramachandra to handle & bring discipline, punctuality for ease of filming on the sets of “Hong Kongnali Agent Amar” which had Ambarish as hero.

Suresh Heblikar over tele conversation mentioned that his association with Ramachandra goes back in 70′ era where they all part of club called Aseema.

Artiste K.S.Sreedhar of Siddalingu fame recalled his association with S.Ramachandra as camera assistant to him before turning artiste and K.S.Ramesh [ Magic ] also mentioned Ramachandra was part of their family and he was his cameraman for some of his Doordarshan projects.

Suchitra Film Society Shashidhar who always recalls his bond with Ramu aka Ramachandra from early 70’s where Ramachandra was also support system to many science and experimental films & documentaries.

Badri Narasimhan son of Producer T.S.Narasimhan over quick call mentioned all their productions like Banker Margaya , Malgudi days etc cinematographer was S.Ramachandra.

Me regular attendee to BIFfes was always hearing about V.K.Murthy ,Subrata Mitra to current active cinematographers like Anil Mehta ,K.K.Senthil Kumar, Ravi.K.Chandran , Rathanavelu of their works and contributions & Kannada films like Samskara , Chomana duddi & Ghattashradha and was always thinking why S.Ramachandra contributions works was not heard & remembered even though he was cameraman for “Chomanaduddi” & “Ghattashardha” & happy to extent which got fulfilled in 17th BIFfes with Artistic Film Festival Director P.B.Murali.

In Philosophy there is saying “Known is drop & unknown is Ocean” ,same way what ever mentioned above of S.Ramachandra is just droplets and curious to know like why S.Ramachandra not done films with Dr.Rajkumar or Puttana Kanagal etc

and hope more of documentations and retrospectives ,panel discussions from many associated with him include family members will happen in future as collective celebrations & which will be befitting tribute.

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Ajay.K.R