He is sparse, talks less, is very normal outwardly, but he is one of the best directors Tamil Nadu has got since 1999. He is also known to sky rocket a star once they are on-board his film. This National Award winning director is celebrating his 44th birthday today.

Bala's mentor is the renowned Balu Mahendra and the former has a lot of respect and regard for his mentor that all his films are shown to his mentor first before audience get to see it.

Bala gave his debut with 'Sethu' which had the then-not-famous Vikram as the lead performer. But post the release of 'Sethu' the director's as well as his hero's popularity grew in leaps and bounds. The film went on to be remade in many languages and even in Bollywood, with Salman Khan playing the role essayed by Vikram.

Heroes started coming to him for a break in their career. Bala's second film was 'Nandha' with Suriya in the lead. 'Nandha' too broke all previous records of Suriya and put him in one of the top slots as an established hero. 'Pithamagan' which followed had Bala's heroes from his prior films, Vikram and Suriya in the lead, and this film too was very successful, commercially and critically.

The director fetched himself a National Award for best direction with his fourth film 'Naan Kadavul' that had Arya and Pooja in the lead. The film deals with the dark story of beggars who are physically and mentally challenged and the tortures that they undergo from a cruel head. The film also bagged more than a couple of state awards.

Bala's recent film 'Avan Ivan' with Arya and Vishal in the lead is considered a little off beat from the usual Bala stamp, because of a liberal amount of comedy the film has. Though it did not turnout to be a huge hit as his earlier films, the film has definitely won points for Arya and especially Vishal for the immense effort the actors have put in for their characters.

On this day we @ IndiaGlitz wish Bala a very Happy Birthday and hope there are many more thought-provoking and wonderful films that will churn out of his mind for the world audience...

Listen to Bala's B'day Special on Raaga.com