RJ Balaji

Presenter Alongside his radio career, Balaji has been active in other fields as well. He stated, "It is nice to do a lot of things so that you are constantly on your feet". Balaji was a performer at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering's annual cultural festival Instincts in March 2012. He hosted the teaser trailer release event for Maattrraan in June 2012. In August 2012, Balaji was a guest performer at the fourth anniversary celebrations of Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi's magazine Inbox 1305. He has conducted the event Mr. and Ms. Techofes at the College of Engineering, Guindy's annual cultural event Techofes twice, in 2012 and 2013. He was also the compère of the audio launch of Kalyana Samayal Saadham, which took place in August 2013. In July 2013, Balaji was the judge of Reflector, an event in Vidya Mandir's interschool cultural event Reflections. On 30 August, he was a judge at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan's cultural event Reverberations. At the 2015 edition of Techofes at the Guindy College of Engineering, he hosted a new show titled Boost with Balaji on 14 February.

Cinema

In Puthagam (2013), Balaji introduces the lead characters played by Sathya, Sanjay, Vignesh, Rakul Preet Singh and Aishwarya Rajesh in a voice-over. In the same year, he made a cameo appearance in Ethir Neechal and made his full-fledged acting debut in Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru. He appeared in a brief role as a show host in Vallinam (2014). His second film appearance in 2014 was in Vaayai Moodi Pesavum. In 2015, he appeared in Idhu Enna Maayam,Yatchanand Naanum Rowdy Dhaan. For his performance in Naanum Rowdydhaan, Balaji won the SIIMA Award for Best Comedian. In 2016, he appeared in Jil Jung Juk and Pugazh, where he also worked as a singer and lyricist on the song "Podu Podu". In Muthina Kathirika (2016), Balaji introduces the main characters, including protagonist Muthupandi (Sundar C) through a voiceover. He then appeared in Devi, Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru (2016), Parandhu Sella Vaa (2016), Kaatru Veliyidai (2017), Spyder (2017) and Kee (2017). RJ Balaji became a full-fledged hero with LKG (2019). The film has emerged as a blockbuster at the Tamil Nadu box office. His directorial debut is Mookuthi Amman (2020) with Nayanthara in the lead. He later acted, directed a comedy-drama film, Veetla Vishesham (2022), a remake of 2018 Hindi blockbuster Badhaai Ho. The action thriller Run Baby Run (2023) had received a positive response from audience. In 2024, he was seen in the films Singapore Saloon and Sorgavaasal. Later, he directed the action drama film Karuppu (2026), starring Suriya in the lead role.

Television

Balaji was a host in the second season of STAR Vijay's dance show Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Dheva. He was the host of Zee Tamizh's Why This Kolaveri, a loose adaptation of the American reality show Killer Karaoke, which premiered in December 2013, and ended in May 2014. In August 2014, Balaji hosted the show Aiyo Amma Awards, a spoof of the Vijay Awards, on Zee Tamizh.

Other works In December 2011, Balaji participated in "Namma Ooru Website Creation Competition", an initiative jointly organised by IIT Madras' Rural Technology and Business Incubator and the National Internet Exchange of India to disseminate village-specific information and create an identity for villages. The same month, he gave an intro in "The Madras Song", a tribute to the 375th anniversary of Chennai, formerly known as Madras.

In November 2014, Balaji created "Panjumittai Productions", a YouTube channel where he uploads short videos dealing with contemporary issues. The first video uploaded to the channel is "Kai Phone Video 01: RJ Balaji's Biriyani!!!", featuring Balaji distributing parcels of biryani to impoverished people on the road. The second, "Kai Phone Video 02: RJ Balaji's 501 Views Success Party!!!", is a satire on the "success parties" that production companies host to celebrate the apparent box office success of their films. The third video, subtitled "RJ Balaji Abusing Sachin Tendulkar..!", has nothing to do with Sachin Tendulkar, but instead features Balaji asking the viewers to spread word so that a heart transplant patient named Kavya could get a heart donor. The video was deliberately titled misleadingly so that the message would spread sooner. On 12 December, less than two weeks after Balaji uploaded the video, Kavya successfully got a donor.

Balaji has also played in the 2015 edition of the Celebrity Cricket League, for the team Chennai Rhinos as an all-rounder. In May 2015, he was a speaker at the first edition of TEDx Mylapore. In August, he joined Ananda Vikatan and Raghava Lawrence's campaign "Aram Seiya Virumbu". During the 2015 South India floods, Balaji and actor Siddharth provided relief support to many of the floods' victims, through a movement known as "Chennai Micro". In January, Balaji was featured in "The Most Important Job", a four-minute video by the Murugappa Group that pays tribute to Indian farmers. Following the March 2016 suicide of Abhinath, a student of Sri Sai Ram Engineering College whose suicide was attributed by the college's authorities to him being unhappy about studying engineering, and protesting students claiming it to be the result of his treatment by the authorities, a video of a speech by Balaji was released in the internet; in that speech he urged corporate firms to "go beyond pass percentages and exam results when choosing colleges for campus recruitments". The video received over views. In January 2017, Balaji participated in the pro-Jalikattu protests. From the following year, he began working as a Tamil cricket commentator for the Indian Premier League.

Artistry Balaji describes "nonsense humour and nonstop talking" as his unique selling proposition. In a 2013 interview, Balaji said that he inherited his sense of humour from his mother, who he called "the funniest person I know ... I have only 10 percent of her comic ability". Although known to actively perform social services, Balaji does not consider himself a social worker or disaster manager: "I am just someone who wants to help people, and I will just do that."

Discography Year Title Song Notes 2019 Puppy "Soththumoottai" 2022 Veetla Vishesham "Daddy Song"