Balu Mahendra

Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran , commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a cinematographer, director, screenwriter and film editor, who worked in various Indian film industries, primarily in Tamil cinema. Born into a Sri Lankan Tamil household, Mahendra developed a passion towards photography and literature at a young age. He was drawn towards film-making after witnessing the shoot of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai in Sri Lanka. A graduate of the London University, he started his career as a draughtsman before gaining an admission to the Film and Television Institute of India to pursue a course in cinematography. Mahendra entered films as a cinematographer in the early 1970s and gradually rose to becoming a film-maker by the end of the decade.