Ashok Kumar Agarwal was an Indian cinematographer and director who worked mainly in the South Indian film industry. In a career that spanned over four decades, he worked in over 125 feature films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages. Apart from numerous state government awards, he was also a recipient of the National Film Award for Best Cinematography. Kumar also directed six feature films. He was married and had four sons. One of his sons is a cinematographer as well.Ashok Kumar was Born in Allahabad, North-Western Provinces, British India to Kedarnath Agarwal, a Hindi poet. He was passionate about cinema right from his childhood despite his family not being connected to films. His reluctant family was initially not supportive of his decision to pursue a career in film but eventually agreed imposing that he should go only to Madras rather than Bombay.