Art direction veteran Maruti V aka Marutirao Kale died of complications stemming from COVID-19 last week. He was 92.
Kale was admitted to Mumbai’s Holy Family Hospital on 7 May after testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. He died in the night of 26 May.
Before he got into art direction, Kale worked as a carpenter on the sets of many productions, including K Asif's magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam (1960).
Later, as assistant art director, he worked on some classics of Hindi cinema like Manoj Kumar's Purab Aur Pachhim (1970) and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974), Kamal Amrohi's Pakeezah (1972), and Yash Chopra's Deewaar (1975) and Kabhi Kabhie (1976).
Some of the other films he worked on were Mithun Chakraborty-starrers Disco Dancer (1982) and Dance Dance (1987) and Subhash Ghai's Saudagar (1991). Kale also worked as art director on some films.