Popular Malayalam Film Director Rajesh Pillai Dies at 41

A day after the release of his film Vettah, popular Malayalam filmmaker Rajesh Pillai breathed his last at a hospital

A day after the release of his latest film Vettah, 41-year-old filmmaker Rajesh Pillai, credited by many for being instrumental in bringing a new face to the Malayalam film industry, breathed his last at a private hospital on Saturday.

Sources said that he passed away at 11:40 am at PVS Hospital in Kochi.

He was hospitalised several times in the last few months.

He was on life support since yesterday. He had been suffering from liver cirrhosis and was due for a liver transplant, which he had postponed to complete his latest film Vettah, which released in cinemas on Friday.

IANS sources

During the final sound mixing for Vettah, he had also contracted pneumonia which worsened his health condition. He often went to the shooting location for the film from the hospital.

Rajesh Pillai’s directorial debut Hridayathil Sookshikkan was released in 2005, but it was his second film Traffic, which came out in 2011, that took his popularity to a new high.