Veteran movie director C.V.Rajendran, who was ailing for sometime, passed away here on Sunday. He was 81. Rajendran has directed popular movies in Tamil like "Galatta Kalyanam", "Sumathi En Sundari" and "Raja" starring Sivaji Ganesan and J.Jayalalithaa who later became Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister.

He also directed other popular movies like "Vani Rani", "Sivagamiyin Selvam", "Ponnoonjal", "Maalai Sooda Va", "Garjanai" and several others in Tamil starring Sivaji Ganesan, Jaishankar, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. Many of the songs in his movies were big hits.