Tamil cinematographer Priyan passes away aged 53 due to cardiac arrest

Tamil cinematographer Priyan passed away on 9 November in Chennai after suffering a cardiac arrest. The noted cinematographer was 53.

He had started off his career in the camera unit as an assistant of actor-producer K Balaji and had worked with director Balu Mahendra in several movies. Among his rich repertoire of work was the 1995 movie Thotta Chinungi, with which Priyan made his debut in cinematography. Prior to that, he had worked with ace National Award winning cinematographer Rajiv Menon.

Priyan was initially called Nagendran, however he changed his name after the movie Porkalam (1997). Velayudham, Thenali, Arul and Poojai were some of the other noted films in which Priyan worked. The ace cinematographer had also worked with stalwart directors such as Mani Ratnam and KS Ravikumar .

Another feather in Priyan’s cap was having worked on 13 movies with legendary director Hari. “He was about to start shooting for Saamy Square, a sequel to Saamy that starred actor Vikram, from November 19. This would have been his 14th film with director Hari," said Rahim Babu, Priyan’s co-cameraman in Saamy Square, according to a report by The Hindu.

Priyan was also a part of the mega successful Velayudham and Singam. Having worked as a cinematographer for almost 30 movies, Priyan was respected and reputed in his craft.