K. Balaji

K. Balaji Biography

K. Balaji was a famous film producer associated with Tamil cinema, who has also produced several Malayalam films. He was a Malayali, settled in Chennai. Most of his successful Tamil ventures were the remakes of Bollywood hits. Billa starring Rajinikanth and Vazhvey Maayam starring Kamal Haasan are among his memorable projects. Noted film producer, Suresh Balaje is his son. His daughter Suchitra is married to leading Malayalam actor Mohanlal since 1988. Mohanlal’s son Pranav has worked as an assistant director for a few of his production ventures and is an aspiring director. Famous comedian Y.G Mahendra is his nephew. Apart from his role as a film producer, he has also acted in a few Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi movies. He was seen in the Bollywood films – Surakshaa and Amar Deep in the late 1970s.

He was born in Kerala on 5 August 1934. His mother is a Malayali, while his father is a Tamilian. Suresh is the grandson of leading advocate during British era, T. Rangachari. He developed the interest of acting since his school days and later he got associated with amateur plays. He approached S. S. Vasan in 1951 to get a film role and thus got his first break in the mythological film – Auvaiyar. He played the minor role of Lord Subramanya in the film. Slowly he moved to meaty roles and often got lead roles in Tamil movies. Bale Pandiya, Padithaal Mattum Podhuma, Adhey Kangal etc are some of his Tamil film roles as an actor. He was also seen in Malayalam films - Swamy Ayyappan, Iruttinte Athmavu, Atom Bomb etc.

He slowly switched towards villain and negative shaded roles and got success through the films - Padithaal Mattum Podhumaa, Bale Pandiya, Thillana Mohanambal etc. In the 1960s he came into contact with many leading actors of Bollywood film industry who advised him to remake Hindi blockbusters to Tamil. Bollywood actors - Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar and Tamil stars Sivaji Ganesan, Savithri and Gemini Ganesan were among those actors who advised him so. He founded Sujatha Cine Arts in 1966 and Sujatha Recording Studio later and remade many great Hindi films to Tamil.

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Updated: January 30, 2016