Pune: Veteran filmmaker Sumitra Bhave, 77, winner of the 64th National Award for best film for Kaasav, died of prolonged illness at a private hospital in Pune on Monday.

She has also directed acclaimed films like Devrai, Doghi, Dahavi Fa and Ha Bharat Maza that won national accolades. Bhave is survived by her daughter.

She was known for her out-of-the-box content and for the way she handled social issues in her films. She has directed 14 films, over 50 documentaries and written four television series. Bhave has bagged many international awards for her work.

Veteran filmmaker Mohan Agashe, who has worked with Bhave, said, “No other filmmaker has handled as sensitively and sensibly five highly stigmatized illnesses as she did in her films — Zindagi Zindabad, Devrai, Nital, Astu and Kaasav dealing with HIV, schizophrenia, leucoderma, dementia and depression.”

Agashe said Bhave, a social scientist and researcher, studied sociology at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. “She realised the power of cinema as the most effective medium to communicate authentic scientific information in an entertaining manner to combat stigma and dispel misunderstandings and myths about these illnesses in a simple language, while stressing the vital role of humanity in medicine. It is a great loss for viewers of her films and a personal loss for me as producer of her last two films,” he added.

Filmmaker Sunil Sukthankar said Bhave had been undergoing treatment in a city hospital since January when she started having health issues. “She was in hospital since the past few days, but I was Covid positive and recovering. I completed my quarantine and was able to be with her for the last three days,” he added.

Sukthankar, who co-directed quite a few films with Bhave, said, “She had two major projects in hand — one was a documentary on vocalist Prabha Atre and a film for the elderly, which she had jointly scripted with Agashe. After she started having health issues in January, she settled down a bit and started reading, watching films and began recording her memories that she thought should be documented.”