Kozhikode: Veteran cinematographer and filmmaker Ramachandra Babu died of a heart attack here on Saturday, family sources said. He was 72. He was rushed to the Government General Hospital (Beach Hospital) in Kozhikode after he collapsed during a location hunt on Saturday. Though he was shifted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital as per doctors' advice, his life could not be saved.

An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, he has handled the camera for over 125 films in various languages, including Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

Babu was part of the technological advancement made by the Malayalam movie industry and was behind the camera when the industry shifted from black and white to colour.

Babu had won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Cinematography four times for his works starting with his first colour film (Eastman Colour) 'Dweepu' in 1977, directed by Ramu Kariat.

He went on to win three more -'Rathinirvedam' in 1978 and 'Chamaram' in 1980, both directed by Bharathan, and 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha' (1989) starring Mammootty directed by Hariharan.

Babu was the cinematographer of the movie 'Nirmalyam' released in 1973. The film, directed by M T Vasudevan Nair, had won the National Award For Best Feature Film.

His noted movies include Padayotttam in 1982, which was the first Malayalam 70 mm feature film, Agraharathil Kazhuthai (1978) which had also won the National Award for the Best Tamil Film directed by John Abraham, Sallapam (1996), Ghazal (1993), Kanmada (1998) and many more.

He was behind the camera for 'Yavanika', directed by K G George, 'Marmaram' by Bharathan and both the movies won the Kerala State Best Film Award in 1982.

He had also worked for films in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Arabic and English languages.

He was directing a film titled Professor Dinkan which has actor Dileep in the lead role. The film's shoot was stalled after the arrest of Dileep in connection with the sensational actress attack case in 2017.

Ramachandra Babu debuted as a cinematographer with John Abraham's Vidyarthikale Ithile Ithile. Apart from John, eminent filmmakers K G George and Balu Mahendra were his batchmates in FTII.

Ramachandra Babu was born on 15 December 1947 in Maduranthakam at Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu. He was settled in Thiruvananthapuram. Noted cinematographer Ravi K Chandran is his brother.

Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala expressed his deepest condolences to the bereaved.

Chennithala said Babu was one of the best cinematographers the Malayalam industry has ever seen and added that his demise would be a great loss to the Malayalam industry.

Minister for Culture A K Balan too expressed his condolences over the demise of the veteran cinematographer.

"The best movies of Malayalam industry was picturised through his camera," Balan said.