Veteran Malayalam film director Lenin Rajendran dies at 67

Veteran filmmaker Lenin Rajendran, chairman of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation, died on Monday at a private hospital in Chennai.

Rajendran, 67, was undergoing treatment for a liver ailment at the Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, for the past three weeks.

Kerala minister for culture and cinema AK Balan announced the director's death. "He directed 16 films and always trod a different path and that's what made him different," Balan said. "He was a known left traveller and that was evident in most of his pictures. His unexpected demise has come as a shock. The Malayalam film industry will miss him."

Rajendran was fielded from the Ottappalam Lok Sabha constituency by the CPI-M (Communist Party of India, Marxist) twice, in 1989 and 1991, against former diplomat KR Narayanan of the Congress, who later went on to become the country's president.

He began his film career as an assistant to director PA Backer and directed his first film, Venal, in 1982. His last film was Edavappathy (2016).

He won five Kerala state film awards in the course of his career.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala condoled Rajendran's death.