SHE is only 26 years old, but Shalini Balasundaram is one of the most prolific young film directors around, having produced five films in the five years since her career began.
Upon graduating from LimKokWing University in 2014, she produced a short film titled Inai. She then directed, produced and starred in her first film, Geethaiyin Raadhaim (2016), which was made through Story Films Sdn Bhd, a company she co-founded with her husband Sathish Natarajan.
She subsequently directed and starred in Thirudathey Papa Thirudathey (2018), television movie Rail Payanangal (2019), and recently released the feature film Pulanaivu.
Speaking to theSun, Shalini said that she has always enjoyed movies from the time she was a child, but at age 15, a screening of James Cameron’s landmark film Avatar (2009) made a huge impact on her life.
In the film, the main characters fight to defend the alien planet of Pandora, a breathtaking mystical world created using ground breaking CGI.
“I enjoyed that new world created in Avatar, and I really wanted to create a world like that [myself],” Shalini recalled.
“I really wanted to be an animator, directing animated films.”
Shalini managed to convince her mother to support her dream, and eventually got her blessing to pursue filmmaking at LimKokWing University.
While her works thus far have been live action productions, Shalini insists that she has not abandoned her dream of making an animated feature.
“Coming from an Indian background, I have always enjoyed films,” she said. “I was brought up watching films on VHS tapes. I used to borrow them for RM3, and could keep them for three or four days.
“My mother loved films by [Indian filmmakers] Balachander and Balu Mahendra. I [have been] watching their films since I was nine years old.”
One of her favourite Indian directors is Mani Ratnam, an innovative filmmaker in terms of storytelling, filmmaking techniques and – as Shalini puts it – depicting strong female characters.
Aside from Kollywood films, Shalini also began watching Hollywood films. All these influences helped shape her own experiences when she eventually began making her own movies.
Speaking about Malaysian-made Tamil films in general, Shalini said: “The Malaysian Tamil film industry is still a ‘baby’. It is only about 10 years old.”
She said that historically, movies were shot on film reels. It was only about a decade ago that films began to be shot in the digital format, using DSLR.
“With DSLR everyone can start making films. So that is when the local Tamil film industry started growing.”
Shalini said that for decades, the Indian cinema relied on romantic elements to make them appealing to the public. Only lately have they started leaning towards other genres, like action or horror.
Shalini said she tried her hand at something different with her latest film Pulanaivu. “It is a crime thriller,” she explained.
Though her films do have “love story elements”, she maintains that they are told differently. For example, Pulanaivu begins as a love story but quickly turns into a murder mystery.
All her movies are self-produced (Datin Sri Shaila V. is her co-producer and co-star in Pulanaivu), so she did not really need to convince anyone of what she is doing.
“I am more motivated behind the camera, I get to create scripts and characters that appeal to the audience. People adore Shaila’s character Bhairavi in Pulanaivu.”
The success of Shalini’s movies rely on the simplicity of the stories they tell. When asked where she gets her inspiration, Shalini said: “Observation [and] reading. Like for Thirudathey Papa Thirudathey, which revolves around a robbery, it was based on [an incident] that took place in my life, and what I have observed happen to others. That is how I came up with that story.”
She reveals that her next film is already in pre-production.
“I am the kind of person who takes time with her script. I believe that content is more important than star value or anything else. I never rush creativity, the universe has to give it to me.
“I believe in good pre-production, for instance, the artiste has to know everything about their character and be that character when they come on set.”
She is aware that penetrating the Indian market is an uphill battle, especially for industry outsiders. Shalini instead prefers talking to streaming service providers, and hoping her movies will be available via a global streaming platforms.
With so much to do in the future, here’s wishing the best to a young lady who knows what she wants and is going all out for it.
