Chennai, February 28. Writer Sujatha's literary excellence went far beyond the realm of cinema, and his genius as a litterateur always shone through, actor Kamal Haasan said today in a tribute.

No writer likes to make a compromise, but Sujatha made one to help cinema with his writing, Kamal Haasan said. "It is literature that should take the credit for his achievements more than any other area. Cinema was only a compromise he made for the sake of the medium and for friends," he said.

It is normal to expect that such a fount of creativity could have given more, Kamal Haasan said, adding, "but the time now is to offer gratitude." Sujatha's writings stoked his desire to read in Tamil, and anyone who had followed his work could be credited with refined taste.

As someone who had studied science, he never treated writing as a mere craft. If his work appeared subdued at times, it was a cultivated profile, Kamal said, paying homage. Writer Sujatha, real name S.Rangarajan, died in Chennai on February 27, after a period of illness, at age 72.