Veteran actor Vinu Chakravarthy who had acted in more than a thousand films in all four South Indian languages passed away in Chennai on Thursday evening. He was 71.

Vinu Chakravarthy, who was also a director and scriptwriter, had been suffering from poor health for the past three years. One of the old timers, he'd acted with Superstar Rajinikanth in more than ten films including hits like Guru Sishyan, Annamalai, and Arunachalam and was, in fact, considered to be the latter's "lucky token". His notable Malayalam films are Meleparambil Aanveedu and Thenkasipattanam. The superhit horror comedy flick Muni was his 1000th film.

Vinu Chakravarthy made the headlines a few years ago when he slammed Ekta Kapoor for the Silk Smitha biopic The Dirty Picture and its lead actor Vidya Balan. He claimed that since he was the one who'd come up with the title 'Silk' which made Smitha famous in the film Vandi Chakram, he should be shown the script before the film was made. 

Smitha, who'd run away from the harassment she was subjected to by her in-laws, came to Madras and began working as a make-up artiste. She was spotted by Vinu Chakravarthy at a flourmill and it was he who reportedly turned her into the phenomenon that she'd go on to become. 

Vinu Chakravarthy is survived by his wife, son, and daughter.