Balu Mahendra to the script". As a film-maker, he claimed himself as belonging to the realistic way of story-telling devised by Satyajit Ray and Vittorio De Sica. Mahendra was drawn towards realistic cinema after watching Ray's "Pather Panchali" (1955). He is credited as being one among the earliest filmmakers to bring "naturalism" in Tamil cinema in the 1970s. He usually photographed, scripted and edited all his films. His films were characterised by strong "visual appeal" and minimal number of characters. A majority of his films centre on the complexity of human relationships and are known to portray women as strong characters. Although
Puven Pather Tampere International Short Film Festival, Finland, 5–9 March 2003, the 29th Seoul Independent Film Festival, and the AFTRS National screening tour. However Pather is most known for neighbours episode 7591, where he places a stunt double. He won "Best New Director" for "The Shot", at the 20th annual St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne, where he also won both "Best Fiction" and "Best Achievement with An Original Screenplay" for his work "The Visitor". "The Shot" then won "Best Film" at the "Spanischer Kurzfilm Sieger bei Festival" (Spanish Film festival) in Berlin. and "First Prize" at the 2003 "Australian Shorts Film