RJ Balaji

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In this Indian name, the name Patturaj is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Balaji.
RJ Balaji
Born Balaji Patturaj[1]
20 June 1985
Nationality Indian
Other names Cross Talk Balaji[2]
Ethnicity Tamil
Occupation Radio jockey, television show host, actor
Years active 2007-present

Balaji Patturaj (born 20 June 1985) popularly known as RJ Balaji, is an Indian radio jockey, television show host and occasional actor based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is best known as the host of Take it Easy and the now defunct Cross Talk at BIG FM 92.7.

Early life

Balaji was born on 20 June[3] 1985,[4] and was raised in Chennai. He has said that he changed 24 houses and 11 schools while growing up in Chennai.[5] He joined the Amrita School of Communication in Coimbatore for a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism,[6] because he wanted to become like his cousin who worked at NDTV, but realised that English journalism was not what he was interested in.[5] At that time he saw a newspaper advertisement of a radio station that auditioned for RJs and he applied for it,[2] though he "never knew what an RJ was back then".[5] He said that he almost did not get selected then [7] when he sang a gaana [5] but was finally selected in November 2006. He stopped his journalism course and has not completed it since.[5]

Career

Radio career

He started his career as an RJ in Coimbatore where he hosted a three-hour morning drive show called Hello Coimbatore which dealt with social issues.[5] After four years he quit the job as he "didn’t want to sound angry all the time" and return to Chennai where his family and friends were living.[5] He joined at BIG FM 92.7, where he conducts the evening primetime show Take it Easy (started mainly to give people "a break from the serious stuff that they have to deal with during work hours and relax with the nonsense"), followed by another show titled Cross Talk, where he makes prank calls to unsuspecting victims, nominated by a friend/cousin/co-worker or neighbour.[8] Cross Talk became very popular among youths;[5] he uploaded several clips of the show on SoundCloud. The links went viral, crossing over a million hits in a mere one week. Besides India, most of the downloads were in the United States (over 20%), United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Seychelles, Germany and Spain.[4] Balaji won the RJ of the Year (Tamil) and Best Programme Broadcast after 11am (Tamil) awards for Take it Easy with Balaji at the 2012 Indian Excellence in Radio Awards.[9][10] Later he was named amongst the Top 10 Promising Personalities of Tamil Nadu in 2012 by Ananda Vikatan Group.[11] He has also been running the "RJ Balaji Skool of Radio Studies" since August 2013.[12] Two apps on Balaji have been developed: An Android app simply named "RJ Balaji",[13] and an iOS app titled "RJ Balaji Official".[14]

In December 2012, Balaji announced that he would stop Cross Talk, in response to the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha.[15] In November 2013, Balaji decided to stop the segment 120 Rs. on his show where he reviewed Tamil films, after he had been severely criticised by actors and producers from the Tamil film industry.[16] A few months before, he had also been threatened by an employee from UTV Motion Pictures for his review of Settai.[17][18][19] Via Twitter, he announced, "I am a normal guy who wants to do good work everyday and go home happy. I can’t really handle aftermath of every show on films. After a lot of thought, I have decided not to speak about films until there’s tolerance and maturity among certain people from film fraternity, which is most unlikely to happen. So, '120 show' is no more".[17] He further stated, "I don’t want to keep taking my work home. I have a one-and-half-year-old child and my wife is concerned about the phone calls I keep getting".[16]

Other works

Alongside his radio career, Balaji has been active in other fields as well. He was briefly a host of Vijay TV's dance show Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Dheva.[12] In Puthagam (2013), he introduces the lead characters played by Sathya, Sanjay, Vignesh and Rakul Preet Singh, in a voice-over.[20] In the same year, he made cameo appearances in Vallinam and Ethir Neechal on request from his friends,[21] and made his full-fledged acting debut in Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru. He stated that working on that film were the "20 best days of my life".[5] He will play a major role in the upcoming Vadacurry, which also features Jai, Swati Reddy and Sunny Leone.[22][23] Balaji is also the host of Why This Kolaveri, a loose adaptation of the American reality show Killer Karaoke. It premiered in Zee Tamil on 14 December 2013.[24][25]

Filmography

Year Title Role
2013 Puthagam Voice only
2013 Ethir Neechal Himself
2013 Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru Karna
2014 Vallinam Show host
2014 Vadacurry

References

  1. ↑ "Students' website on villages gives solutions to local issues". The Hindu. 18 December 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2013. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Anusha Parthasarathy (2012-05-24). "Making waves". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  3. ↑ "RJ Balaji". Facebook. Retrieved 2014-01-22. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Subha j rao (2011-07-24). "Sound waves". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-01-22. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Sudhish Kamath (2013-11-01). "An ‘awesomatic’ run". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  6. ↑ "News and Events » Amrita Alumnus Honored by Rotary Club". News.amrita.edu. 2009-10-10. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  7. ↑ Shenoy, Sonali. "App-reciation aplenty for RJ Balaji". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  8. ↑ Srinivasan, Madhumitha (2011-08-10). "Take it easy!". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-06-19. 
  9. ↑ "Media Newsletter,Press Releases,Online Press Release,Media Press Releases". Afaqs.com. 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  10. ↑ "IRF 2012; Mirchi takes the cake; RED FM gets best station recognition". Adgully.com. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  11. ↑ "RJ Balaji named amongst top 10 Promising Personality of Tamil Nadu in 2012 | Editorial-News". Radioandmusic.com. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Verbal diarrhoea we can’t get enough of". The New Indian Express. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2013. 
  13. ↑ "RJ Balaji - Android-apps op Google Play". Google Play. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2014-01-23. 
  14. ↑ "RJ Balaji Official on the App Store on iTunes". Itunes. 2013-07-30. Retrieved 2014-01-23. 
  15. ↑ Frederick, Prince (2012-12-12). "Hang up on prank calls". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-06-19. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Karthik Subramanian (2013-11-07). "RJ chucks film review segment after controversy". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Fielding the brickbats". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  18. ↑ "Is RJ Balaji Hurting Tamil Movie Industry?". Retrieved 19 December 2013. 
  19. ↑ "Twitter / RJ_Balaji: @Dhananjayang I wanted to end ...". Retrieved 19 December 2013. 
  20. ↑ "Puthagam - A Slow page turner". IndiaGlitz. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013. 
  21. ↑ Gupta, Rinku (2013-05-04). "Theeya Velai Seiyanum Kumaru was tempting: Balaji". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  22. ↑ "Sunny Leone impresses her co-stars in Vada Curry". Behindwoods.com. Retrieved 2014-01-22. 
  23. ↑ "RJ Balaji to share Vadacurry". Sify.com. 2013-08-16. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  24. ↑ Mrinalini Sundar (27 December 2013). "Being Balaji". Indulge (The New Indian Express). Retrieved 15 January 2014. 
  25. ↑ "Why this Kolaveri - a TVshow - The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2014-01-04. 

External links

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