Bank puts veteran director K Balachander’s house, office on sale

CHENNAI: The office of Kavithalaya Productions, founded by late director K Balachander, has been put up for

auction

due to an unpaid loan. Along with the production company’s office, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner’s house in Mylapore will also go under the hammer. UCO Bank has delivered a notice to the family of the legendary director for an unpaid loan of Rs 1.36 crore. Kavithalaya Productions has bankrolled several hit films featuring the likes of Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan since the 1980s.

The two flats are situated on the second floor of a commercial complex on Lady Desika Road, Mylapore. One flat, which has a builtup area of 1,700sqft, is under the name of Balachander’s daughter Pushpa Kandaswamy. UCO Bank has set an upset price (lowest acceptable selling price of a property in an auction) of Rs 87 lakh. The upset price for the other flat is Rs 119 lakh. It has a builtup area of 2,400 sq ft and is registered under the name of Balachander’s wife Rajam Balachander. Pushpa and Rajam were involved in the functioning of the production house.

Balachander passed away in December 2014 following which the banner had not produced any feature film. Kavithalaya Productions had produced more than 50 films including hits like ‘Naan Mahaan Alla’ (1984), ‘Sindu Bhairavi’ (1985), ‘Punnagai Mannan’ (1986) and ‘Saamy’ (2003). Balachander directed most of the films he produced. Films by Kavithalaya were also critically acclaimed, with at least half a dozen of them winning National and Tamil Nadu state film awards.

The last major film bankrolled by Kavithalaya Productions was ‘Kuselan’ which featured Rajinikanth in an extended cameo. Financial strains caused by the film’s failure at the box office led Kavithalaya to shelve all its ongoing projects.