CHENNAI: Two days after veteran Tamil film producer, director and distributors’ association leader K Rajan died by suicide, his family members alleged that he had been battling severe mental distress caused by unpaid loans amounting to nearly Rs 20 crore.
According to a Maalaimalar report, Rajan’s son Suresh Rajan stated that the producer was not driven to suicide due to personal debt, but because several people in the Tamil film industry had failed to return money borrowed from him over the years.
“He had lent money to many people in the Tamil film industry, including small and big producers. For more than five years, he struggled to recover the amount. Many cheated him,” Suresh Rajan alleged.
According to him, the mounting stress severely affected Rajan’s health over the past two years. He reportedly suffered three heart attacks and had undergone treatment multiple times. A pacemaker was also fitted recently.
“Even in that condition, he kept worrying that people who borrowed money were refusing to repay him. That pain pushed him towards suicide,” Suresh Rajan said.
Suresh Rajan further claimed that the family possesses documentary evidence related to the loans and would approach the Producers’ Council to recover the pending amounts.
Rajan’s daughter Rajeshwari remembered her father as a self-made man who rose from poverty to become a respected figure in Tamil cinema.
“One can write an entire book about my father’s life and growth. Though he was born poor, he entered cinema with dreams, achieved success and reached great heights. He lived like a warrior,” she told reporters.
She also appealed to people not to speak ill of him, adding that only family members truly understand the struggles in a person’s life.
K Rajan’s death has sent shockwaves through the Tamil film industry.