Director Balachander passes away

Doyen of Tamil celluloid world and one of tinsel town’s most respected film directors K Balachander is no more. He is survived by his wife, son and a daughter.

The 84-year-old director, who moulded superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan into fine actors, was declared dead by the doctors around 7 pm after prolonged illness.

Balachander, who had developed urinary tract infection, high fever and other age-related ailments, was admitted at a private hospital last Monday.
Soon after he was admitted in serious condition, the veteran director was kept in the ICU and was under supervision of senior doctors in the hospital.

“He had suffered a cardiac arrest in the evening. Since his fever was not fully under control, his health conditions deteriorated in the last two days,” hospital sources said.
They said Balachander had undergone a surgery to remove a brain tumour recently.

Sources added that since Balachander’s kidneys were not functioning, he was under dialysis for the last one week. “Though a team of doctors were monitoring his health condition continuously, he succumbed to his disease on Tuesday,” sources added.