Kannada director Rajendra Babu dead

Bangalore, Nov 3 (IANS) Kannada director D. Rajendra Babu died here Sunday at a private hospital after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 62.

"He suffered a severe heart attack this morning and passed away at M.S. Ramaiah Hospital. He was admitted late Saturday evening after he complained of pain in the abdomen," a source from the hospital told IANS.

Rajendra Babu, who had over 50 films to his credit, started his career as an actor and then moved on to direction.

Some of his directorial films include "Jiddu", "Yuga Purasha" and "Annayya". He has also directed a Hindi film titled "Pyaar Karke Dekho" starring Govinda.

He was working on a Kannada sports-drama "Aryan" featuring Shivarajkumar and Ramya aka Divya Spandana.

After hearing the news of his demise, Divya tweeted: "Really saddened. D Rajendra Babu sir was such a nice person. (I) spoke to him a while ago (and) he was supportive of my new responsibility."

He is survived by his wife Sumithra and daughters Umashankari and Nakshatra, who has already made cinematic debut in Tamil drama "Doo".