S Balachander was born to Sundaram Iyer and Parvathi alias Chellamma. Sunderam Iyer was a patron of Papanasam Sivan and many other musicians in Mylapore, Chennai.^[2]

Balachander began as a child artist in the Tamil film Seetha Kalyanam in 1934, in which many members of his family acted. Balachander himself acted as a child musician in Ravana's court, and his father V. Sundaram Iyer acted as Janaka, elder brother S. Rajam as Rama and elder sister S. Jayalakshmi as Seeta.^[3] This was followed by appearances in Rishyasringar (1941) and Araichimani (1942).^[4][5]

In 1948 Balachander directed the film En Kanavar.^[6] In 1954 he directed Andha Naal, a classic Tamil film noir thriller.^[7][8]

S Balachander claimed that the composer Swati Tirunal was a figment of history's imagination, and he did not even exist. He accused Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer of passing off his own compositions as Swati Tirunal's. Balachander also disputed Balamurali Krishna's claims of having invented new ragas.^[9]

S Balachander was actively involved in the Swati Tirunal dispute at the time of his death.^{[citation needed]}

• 1954 – Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film in Tamil – Andha Naal^[10]
• 1956 – Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film in Telugu – Edi Nijam^[11]
• 1982 – Sangeetha Kalasikhamani, by The Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai.^{[citation needed]}
• 1982 – Padmabhushan^[12]

• S. Balachander at IMDb
• Balachander plays the Veena on YouTube
• Movies side of Veenai Balachandar on YouTube - Mysskin tells about S. Balachander's film history.