Balu Mahendra

Who was Balu Mahendra?

Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was an Indian cinematographer, filmmaker, screenwriter and editor. Born into a Sri Lankan Tamil household, Mahendra developed a passion for photography at a tender age. He was drawn towards film-making after witnessing the shoot of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai in Sri Lanka. Hailed as one of the greatest cinematographers in Indian cinema, he worked as a cameraman for about 20 films before making his debut as a director. He is widely regarded as part of the first in a wave of directors and screenwriters who re-vitalised Tamil cinema.

An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Mahendra started his career as a cinematographer in the early 1970s and gradually rose to becoming a film-maker at the end of the decade. Since his directional debut Kokila, he made over 20 films in all South Indian languages apart from two in Hindi. Mahendra had directed 22 feature films and won five National Film Awards—two for cinematography, three Filmfare Awards South apart from a few state awards from the governments of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Widely regarded as an auteur, Mahendra wrote the script for his films, handled the camera and edited the film himself apart from directing.