Thiruvananthapuram: Noted Malayalam lyricist Bichu Thirumala is reportedly battling for life in a private hospital, here, following a heart attack.

The 80-year-old was reportedly placed on ventilator support on Wednesday. He was admitted two days ago with breathing problems.

His condition is very bad, sources said.

B Sivasankaran Nair, popularly known as Bichu Thirumala, started his lyricist career with the 1972 Malayalam film Bhaja Govindam.  Though this movie did not see the light of the day, his first song  "Brahma Muhoorthathil" that was rendered for this film became popular. The song was aired on Radio Ceylon in the early 1970s. 

Later, he went on to work with eminent composers like G Devarajan, V Dakshinamurthy, MS Baburaj, K Raghavan, MS Viswanathan, AT Ummer, Shyam, Jerry Amaldev, Johnson, Ouseppachan, Ilaiyaraaja and AR Rahman.

He, along with ONV Kurup, is known for creating lyrics that stood out for beautiful arrangement of words.

 In 1981, he won the Kerala State Film Award for the best lyricist for the films Thrishna and Thenum Vayambum.

He also won the same award for the second time in 1991, for the Rajasenan-directed film Kadinjool Kalyanam.

Bichu Thirumala penned the lines for AR Rahman's music for the film Yodha.

Bichu has also doubled up as music director in a few Malayalam films. 

He is married to Prasanna and they have a son Suman.