KNT Sastry touched lives with his engaging cinema

KNT Sastry, the much acclaimed award-winning filmmaker, critic, author and publisher, breathed his last at his Trimulgherry residence in the late hours of Thursday. Garnering success and reverence in all the fields that he had ventured into, Sastry, a journalist-turned-director was committed to making socially relevant films and didn’t subscribe to commercial norms. Sastry, in his early years, had the inclination to document the history of Telugu cinema in English. He made several efforts on that front by publishing stories, writing monographs on legendary storytellers including Nagaiah, Nagireddy, Bhanumati and Chakrapani. The film bug bit him when his regular columns on films went onto pique the filmmaker in him. Sastry’s first brush with filmdom came when director B Narsing Rao and team were looking for a promising writer for their film Daasi. He bid goodbye to his flourishing journalism career and took a leap of faith. It paid off. Sastry went on to make films both in Kannada and Telugu. Thilaadanam, Kamli, Sarasammana Samadhi are just a few of his gems. He also joined hands with many social welfare outfits to make poignant documentaries, the most prominent being the one on Surabhi theatre group.