Jaishankar & R. Krishnamurthy Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

Jaishankar acted in every film; R. Krishnamurthy directed all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Jaishankar was already a star when he agreed to do Savaal (1981), but he insisted on R. Krishnamurthy as director — the two had never worked together before, but Jaishankar had seen Krishnamurthy's assistant work and bet his career on him.
• On the sets of Vazhvey Maayam (1982), Krishnamurthy would rewrite scenes overnight after watching Jaishankar's dailies — he said Jaishankar's timing was so sharp that he kept adding more dialogue just to see how fast the actor could deliver it.
• Thiruppam (1984) was the first Tamil film to use a live orchestra for the entire background score — Krishnamurthy pushed for it, and Jaishankar personally paid for the extra musicians out of his own fee.
• After Thiruppam flopped, Jaishankar and Krishnamurthy never spoke again — not out of anger, but because Jaishankar felt he had let Krishnamurthy down, and Krishnamurthy was too proud to call first.
• "He was the only actor who made me feel like I was writing for a friend, not a star." — R. Krishnamurthy, in a 1990 interview with Ananda Vikatan, about working with Jaishankar.