Balaji Sakthivel

Balaji Sakthivel Biography

Balaji Sakthivel is a famous and critically acclaimed film director of Tamil, most known for 2004 romantic movie – Kaadhal. This low-budget movie with newcomers was a surprising blockbuster at box office and Balaji was praised for his excellent skills of film direction. Kaadhal Sandhya debuted film world through Kaadal, where she played lead role, alongside a few more newcomers like Saranya Nag. 2002 movie Samurai, starring Vikram and Anita Hassanandani marked his career beginning as a director. In 2012 he directed the movie - Vazhakku Enn 18/9, which received numerous prestigious awards including National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil, Film Fare Award for Best Film and Best Director in Tamil and SIIMA Award for Best Director. In 2007, he directed another noted campus story of love and friendship – Kalloori with Akhil and Tamannah in lead roles.

He was born on January 1, 1964 in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. Sakthivel began his film career as an assistant director under Tamil director S. Shankar. In 2002, he directed his first film, Samurai. Though the movie received positive reviews from critics, it was a box-office failure. In 2004, his masterpiece work – Kaadal was released. The movie telling the love story and elope of two teenagers and its anti-climax touched audience hearts and souls. The movie turned out to be one of the highest grossers of the year and its artists later came to be known with ‘Kaadal’ tag. Balaji received instant recognition as a director as well.

In 2007, he told another anti-climax love story – Kalloori. This movie was something like nostalgic and a brief travel to one’s college life. The movie too received positive reviews from critics and did fairly well at box office. Sakthivel is married to Kalanidhi and the couple has two kids.

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Updated: March 10, 2014