A Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate, Kaul breathed his last around 1 a.m. at his home in the capital after he was discharged from a hospital Tuesday night, filmmaker Shyam Benegal said. I had lost touch with him for a long time. But I came to know that he died around 1 a.m. in the morning at his house in New Delhi. He was suffering from some sort of cancer," Benegal, who used to stay close to Kaul in south Mumbai for a few years, told IANS. Born in Jodhpur in Rajasthan to a Kashmiri Pandit family, Kaul made his debut with "Uski Roti" in 1969. It won him the Filmfare Critics Award for the best movie. His later movies "Ashad Ka ek Din", "Duvidha" and "Idiot" also won Filmfare awards. He was also the recipient of a National Film Award for his documentary "Siddheshwari" in 1989. In 2009, Kaul was appointed the director general of the Osian's Cinefan Film Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema.