He says he relies on his intuition to sense the potential of an actor.

''When I first saw Rajnikanth, I saw the fire in him. It took three successive movies to mould him so that he suited the role that I had in mind. It was a lot of hard work. With Kamal Hassan, I had to explain the situations to get the results. After the initial days, both Rajni and Kamal grew as stars and actors on their own. I also like bringing in new combinations so that there is a better cinema,” said K Balachander.

He recalled that when he was making Roja he asked director Mani Rathnam to find a new music maestro so he brought in Dileep, who is now A R Rahman.

“I still remember listening to the first recording of the song Chinna Chinna Aasai (Chhoti Si Aasha in Hindi) around 40 times. I told Mani that it will become the song of the year and it became the song of the decade,” he added.