Kochi, Dec 24: Malayalam film director Shanavas Naranippuzha, who suffered a heart attack a few days ago, died at a private hospital here, film industry sources said here on Thursday.

Shanavas(37), hailing from Naranipuzha near Ponnani in Malappuram district, was admitted to a hospital in Coimbatore in a serious condition after he suffered a heart attack.

But he suffered another attack while being shifted to the private hospital here last night for better medical care, hospital sources said.

He was brought to the hospital at 9 pm in a serious condition.

His end came after 10 pm. He had suffered brain damage too.

Efforts to revive him did not yield result, they said.

Shanavas's movie "Sufiyum Sujatayum" was the first Malayalam film released on OTT platform during coronavirus lockdown.

Aditi Rao Hydari, who was the lead actress in the movie, recalled that he was "as kind and sensitive as his stories".

"Rest in Peace Shanavas sir. I Hope your Sufi soul finds a place as beautiful as the one you created for us in Sufiyum Sujathayum.

Gone too soon. My Prayers and condolences to the family," she wrote on her social media account.

"Karie" released in2015 was his debut movie.

Kerala cultural minister A K Balan condoled his untimely demise, saying it was a huge loss for the Malayalam film industry.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.