IANS/Chennai

Prolific filmmaker Balu Mahendra, known for inspiring the audience with his visually uplifting movies for over three decades, died after a heart attack here yesterday. He was 74.
He dies at the Vijaya Hospital.
Born as Benjamin Mahendran on May 20, 1939 in Sri Lanka, Balu Mahendra had a fascination for photography since his childhood.
With a flair for capturing images, Balu started his career as a cinematographer and landed his big break in the 1974 Malayalam film Nellu.
He went on to work as a cinematographer in several award winning films such as Prayanam, Mullum Malarum and Sankarabharanam.
He also won two National Awards for cinematography.
In 1977, Balu wielded the megaphone for the Kannada romantic-drama Kokila, which was also written by him. The film won the Karnataka State Award for the best screenplay.
He directed films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu.
In the Tamil film world, Balu was regarded for Moondram Pirai, which he later directed in Hindi as Sadma with Kamal Haasan and Sridevi. His other Hindi directorial was Aur Ek Prem Kahani.
He also directed a Telugu film Nireekshana.
His Malayalam directorial films include Olangal, which was later adapted to Hindi as Masoom by Shekhar Kapur, Oomakkuyil and Yathra.
As a director, Balu Mahendra pocketed three National Awards.
He was one of the finest cinematographers of Indian cinema. Many years ago, Subrata Mitra, cinematographer of Satyajit Ray’s films, presented a viewfinder to Balu Mahendra for his talent.
His legacy continues in Tamil cinema in the form of his pupils. Most of his filmmaker students such as Bala Pazhanisaamy, Vetrimaaran, and Ameer Sultan have won the National Awards for their films.
Balu Mahendra’s last Tamil directorial Thalaimuraigal was a befitting farewell to his illustrious career. The film was not a box office winner but was lauded by critics.
Balu Mahendra’s unfulfilled wish was the archiving of Tamil films.
“So many rare Tamil films couldn’t be restored. You can’t make such films again. I wish to see that we take up archiving seriously and restore as many films as possible,” he said recently.