R. Balki is best known for directing Cheeni Kum (2007) and Paa (2009). He started his career with Mudra at the age of 23. His films includes Cheeni Kum, Paa, Shamitabh, Ki and ka, English Vinglish and Dear Zindagi.He started his career with Mudra at the age of 23. His passion had always been film making; after college, he even applied to the Madras Film Institute to do a course in direction. However, he did not like the panel that interviewed him, so he walked out. After this, he got into the Masters in Computer Application (MCA) course in a college directly opposite the film institute. He always liked computers, so he thought that he could do well in this course. After studying there for three years, he was thrown out in the last year because of lack of attendance. According to him, this was mainly because he played a lot of cricket and watched a lot of movies