Tamil art director, Milan Fernandez dies of heart attack in Azerbaijan

Chennai, Oct 15 Milan Fernandez, the acclaimed art director for various Tamil films such as ‘Billa’, ‘Veluyantham’, ‘Vedalam’, and ‘Oram Po’ among many others, tragically passed away from a heart attack in Azerbaijan. He was 54 years old.

The news of his passing was confirmed by popular Malayalam actor Prem Kumar, who took to his X handle, formerly called Twitter, and posted a picture of himself with Milan.

He wrote: “Omg shocking Art director #Milan sir no more. Very calm person, I knew him in #Thunivu . Too soon to go… my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, it happened in #Azerbaijan #VidaaaMuyarchi #ripmilan (sic).”

Tamil actor Jayaram Ravi expressed his condolences on X, and wrote: “Shocked to hear about the passing away of Art Director #Milan. My heartfelt condolences to his family during this difficult time.”

Born in Chennai, Milan began working in the Tamil film industry from 1999 as assistant art director. Initially he worked with the famous art director Sabu Cyril in films like ‘Spoken’, ‘Tamilian’, ‘Villain’, and ‘Stranger’ among others.

Gradually, he shifted to becoming a solo art director where he designed much of the concept art and aesthetics for the 2006 film ‘Kalabha Kandhalan’ and the 2007 black-comedy film ‘Oram Po’.

He later was part of the films ‘Vaitheeswaran’, ‘Solla Solla Inikkum’, and even made inroads into Malayalam cinema with the comedy film ‘Padmasree Bharat Saroj Kumar’, in 2012.

Since 2006, Milan Fernandez has worked in more than 30 movies and also did art direction for commercials. Some of his more recent art works are featured in films such as ‘Oxygen’, ‘Sammy 2’, ‘Jaani’, ‘Bogun’, and ‘Saagasam’ among others.

His last film was in director Siva’s upcoming period-action Tamil film ‘Kanguva’ which stars Surya, Disha Patani, Bobby Deol, Yogi Babu, Ravi Raghavchandra, Kovai Sarala, and Redin Kingsley among others. The film will hit theatres sometime in 2024.