Veteran film activist George Kutty passes away in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: George Kutty, the veteran film activist and driving force behind the Bangalore Film Society (BFS), passed away on Monday at the age of 75 years in the city after a period of illness.

He was instrumental in shaping the parallel cinema movement in South India and was the founder-editor of the nationally acclaimed film journal, Deep Focus.

Since the early 1990s, he remained the backbone of the BFS, curating festivals that moved beyond commercial interests to explore progressive ideas, geopolitics, and environmental themes like water conservation.

His contribution to film scholarship was through the magazine 'Deep Focus' launched in 1988. The quarterly journal became a platform of national repute, bringing film criticism to the mainstream and launching the careers of noted critics like M K Raghavendra and Manu Chakravarthy.

N Vidyashankar, a long-term associate, noted that Kutty’s vision was always rooted in the necessity of cinema as a cultural tool. "He conducted special festivals with a focus on progressive ideas, ensuring that Bengaluru remained a sanctuary for serious cinephiles," he said.

Film director Babu Eswar Prasad, a close friend since 1993, paid tribute to Kutty’s resilience. "Even when he was ill, his resolve never flickered. He continued to pull festivals together through sheer willpower because he believed we needed these stories. He worked not for credit, but to keep the culture of film alive," Prasad said.