Veteran Malayalam actor and scriptwriter P Balachandran passes away aged 69 in Kerala

Malayalam actor, director, and playwright P Balachandran passed away on Monday, 5 April, at his Vaikkom residence in Kerala. He was 69.

As per reports, he was bedridden for the last eight months and was undergoing treatment for meningitis. His final rites will be performed this evening at his home. He is survived by his wife Sreelatha, former chairperson of Vaikom municipality, and children Sreekanth and Parvathy.

Born on 2 February, 1952 to Saraswati Bhai and Padmanabha Pillai at Sasthamkotta village in Kerala's Kollam district, Padmanabhan Balachandran Nair will be remembered for his contribution to literature and cinema.  An alumnus of the School of Drama, Balachandran was also a teacher with School of Letter at the Mahatma Gandhi University. He was also known for his theatre work. For his play Paavam Usman, he won awards like the Kerala Professional Nataka Award and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989.

Balachandran began his acting career as an extra in Richard Attenborough’s landmark film Gandhi which released in 1982. He went on to feature in films like Silence, Thank You, Trivandrum Lodge, among others.

Apart from acting, he wrote scripts of various movies including Kallu Kondoru Pennu, Uncle Bun, and Police. He made his directorial debut with Ivan Megharoopan in 2012. It was based on the life of the well-known poet t P. Kunhiraman Nair and remains the only film directed by him.