M. Bhaskar

M. Bhaskar hailed from a village called Pattamputhur, Virudhunagar district. He started his career as an associate to C. V. Sridhar starting from movie Venniradai followed by list of notable films he worked Kodimalar, Nenjirukkum Varai, Ooty Varai Uravu, Avalukendru Or Manam, Sivantha Mann, Uttharavindri Ulle Vaa also in Hindi films Pyar Kiye Jaa, Gehri Chaal, Nai Roshni, Dharti. He made his directorial debut with Bairavi.[2] The film gave major breakthrough in the career of Rajinikanth as a lead actor. Rajini gained the tag "Superstar" from this film.[3][4]

Bairavi is a 1978 Tamil feature film directed by M. Baskar and starring Rajinikanth. It was Rajinikanth's first movie as a solo hero in Tamil cinema.[5] He was also given the "Superstar" title through this film.[6][7] The film stars Sripriya as the female lead and Geetha playing the title role as Rajini's sister. Geetha was introduced in this film. Srikanth played the role of the main villain. Malayalam actor Sudheer played Bairavi's step brother, while Manorama and Suruli Rajan played other major roles.

M Baskar who was impressed with Rajini's dedication in Aarupushpangal, went straight ahead casting Rajini in lead role for Bhairavi. M Baskar, having faith in Rajini to pull the crowds as hero. Initially, Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar agreed to give financial support for Bhairavi but when he heard Rajini is the hero, he withdrew the support and advised M Baskar to stop the movie or change the hero. He questioned M Baskar for choosing a villain in the lead role and hero as villain (Srikanth was acting as hero those days) and he assured to M Baskar that it will be a huge loss.[8] M Baskar approached Muthuraman to play negative role but he refused to portray a negative character, Srikanth was finally selected for the role.[8][9] With all these burden, M Baskar decided to direct the film.[2][3][4][8]

The soundtrack and background score was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Bairavi was the third film for Ilaiyaraaja. All lyrics were penned by Kannadasan.[3]

Then he started his own production company "Oscar Movies" in 1980.Some of the Bhaskar's hit movies as a director and producer includes Theerpugal Thiruththapadalam, Soolam, Sattathin Thirappu Vizhaa, Chakravarthy.[10] He then produced films Vishnu, Kadhal Rojave and Thotta. Vishnu is the first movie that Vijay acted in others production.[11] Vijay earlier movies were produced by his father.Also Vijay honored his first producer Balaji prabhu during his Jilla movie audio launch in december 2013.[12]

M Bhaskar was four times 'Secretary' of "Tamil Film Producers' Council", when his contemporary legends Kovai Chezhian, K Balachander, Bharathiraja and KRG were 'President'. He also served the 'South Indian Producers' Guild' as Secretary. He was also the Vice-president of South Indian Directors' Association. He served the 'South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce' for three decades. M Bhaskar along with Bharathiraja rose the Tamil Film Producers' Council's funds from a meager INR 26 to INR 2,00,000 during his tenure of service. M Bhaskar was considered to one of pillars of Tamil Film Producers' Council for reviving it from the financial crisis. He also served as Censor Board Member of Central Board of Film Certification, Government of India for many years. He was also an outside expert for sponsored Programme of Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai for a long period.

Bhaskar initially signed Prashanth for Kadhal Rojavae, but he got offer from S. Shankar for movie Jeans. Considering his career Bhaskar agreed to release prashanth from Kadhal Rojavae. Then he decided to introduce son of former actress Sheela to debut in his production Kadhal Rojavae also introduced Pooja Kumar as a heroine in 1997.According to the deal signed, Vishnu was not supposed to act in any other film until Kadhal Rojavae had been completed and released. However, during production, Vishnu could not wait and starred in a Malayalam film, while Keyaar was still shooting causing a rift between the actor and producer Bhaskar during the making of the project.[13] Pooja Kumar, who was crowned Miss India USA in 1995, was selected to make her debut as heroine and during production she was signed and dropped from other Tamil films of the period including V. I. P and Chinna Raja. The actress notably returned more than a decade later starring in the lead role in Kamal Haasan's bilingual Vishwaroopam. Kadhal Rojavae released after a delay in production in 2000.

Bhaskar died on 13 July 2013 at the age of 78 due to a heart attack.[2] Bhaskar is survived by his wife Meena Rani, sons Balaji Prabhu, Mariappa Babu, and a daughter Janakipriya.[10]

• M. Bhaskar at IMDb