RIP! Legendary stunt choreographer Judo Rathnam passed away

Legendary stunt director Judo Ratnam, who choreographed fights for three generations of heroes such as MGR-Shivaji, Kamal-Rajini and Ajith-Vijay, passed away today.  He was 93 years old.  He was undergoing treatment due to age related illness for the past few days and breathed his last in his hometown Gudiyatham.

Judo K Rathnam is survived by his son Judo K. Ramu who is also a stunt choreographer and grandsons Judo Lenin and John Prince who are stuntmen in the film industry.   The legendary personality has choreographed stunts for around 1500 films in many languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.  He was praised for his work especially in Rajinikanth’s ‘Murattu Kaalai’ and Kamal Haasan’s ‘Sakalakala Vallavan’ two of the biggest hits ever.

Interestingly Rathnam debuted as actor in 1959 in the film ‘Thamarai Kulam’ and starred in a few films.  Several years later he played the main villain in Sundar C’s debut movie as actor ‘Thalainagaram’ that was his last as well.  Several top stunt choreographers in Indian cinema were his proteges including Super Subarayan, Rambo Rajkumar, FEFSI Vijayan, Thalapathy Dinesh, Jaguar Thangam, Ponnambalam, Judo. KK Ramu, Indian Bhaskar, Rajasekar, Ambur. RS Babu and M. Shahul Hameed.  Tributes are pouring in from the Kollywood as well as other industries. RIP!