Biography

Ülkü Erakalın , (June 9, 1934, Istanbul - April 6, 2016, Istanbul ), Turkish producer and director. He is the son of Vaso (Vasiliki) Hanım, one of the Direklerarası kanto singers, and Abdurrahman Bey, another Direklerarası musician and a graduate of Muzika-yı Hümayun. He was born in Beyoğlu. He started his education in 1941 at the Dokuzuncu Primary School in Kasımpaşa. After primary school, he entered the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory Music Department in 1947 with an exam. He took piano, violin and flute lessons. He worked as a magazine writer in Radyo Âlemi and Sinema 63 magazines. Erakalın, who graduated from the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory Music Department, started her art life in 1958. The artist, who gained her first experiences as an assistant to Lütfi Akad , exhibited her first work in the art of cinema in 1961 with the film Unutamamımın Kadın (Woman I Forgot). In the film Unfinished Ayyaş, he included scenes from real life and the life of her mother Vaso (Vasilik) Hanım, a master kanto singer and theater actress who came to Turkey from Greece. In addition to her experience as a musician, he also worked as a producer with a company called "Duygu Film". He wrote four books, mostly including her memoirs. Erakalın, who acted in one film as an actress, directed many films during the sex film craze of the 1970s. He has made around 200 films.