Director G S Panicker, who directed and produced seven films in Malayalam and other languages, passed away in Chennai on Thursday. He was battling cancer for some time now and was treatment at a medical college there.
G S Panicker is most famous for his debutant work 'Ekakini' released in 1976, featuring Shobha, Indra Balan and Ravi Menon in the lead roles. The movie, which won several awards including the best film, is considered to be the first road movie in Malayalam. The movie has been based on M T Vasudevan Nair's short story titled 'Karutha Chandran'.
He has also helmed other movies based on works of literature, including Sethu's famous novel 'Pandavapuram. 'Sahyante Makan' was based on Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon's work. 'Prakrithi Manohari', Bhoothapandi, 'Vasarashaya' are his other films.
According to reports, he had plans to direct a movie in 2018, but that did not take off. Panicker was a Thiruvananthapuram native.
