will feature fresh faces. “I’m certain of one thing,” said Mahendra, “that it will feature the music director who has scored for all my films, the maestro, Ilayaraja.”

Before he gets his film institute rolling, director Balu Mahendra wants to make a few more movies. It was fellow director, Rajeshwar, who persuaded Mahendra to consider putting off his plans for the film institute and come back to filmmaking. Rajeshwar felt that once Mahendra got the film institute off the ground, he would be so involved with teaching and running the institute, it would leave him with little time to make movies. And this would be a terrible loss, observed Rajeshwar, since a new movie by Mahendra is always something to look forward to.