T. S. B. K. Moulee

T. S. B. K. Moulee is an Indian film director, writer, playwright, and actor known for his works in Telugu and Tamil cinema. His celluloid scripts include Kamal Haasan's Pammal K. Sambandam, the biographical sports drama film Ashwini, and Nala Damayanthi in the year 2003.
Three of his popular plays were translated into Telugu and Bengali and were staged in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal with a record of 4000 stage shows. He received the Kalaimamani Award for "Best Writer" in 1985 and the Nandi Award for five films. He has acted in more than 100 films in Tamil and Telugu. He has done supporting roles in films like Thiruvilayaadal Aarambam, Pirivom Sandhippom, Irumbukkotai Murattu Singam and Kadhal to Kalyanam.

Early life

Mouli is the son of Harikatha exponent T. S. Balakrishna Sastrigal. Mouli was interested in acting and played parts in stage plays from his school days. As a school-going kid, he was fascinated by the plays of T. K. Shanmugam and Singanallur Venkataramana Iyer Sahasranamam, both noted personalities in producing stage plays at that time.
Although he pursued a BTech degree, he said he "could not resist the temptation to write plays". At 19, he wrote a 45-minute play and staged it at a function organised to felicitate actor Sivaji Ganesan for his Padma Shri award. In his college days, he was a part of Y. G. Parthasarathy's United Artists Association. However, Mouli first came into limelight in 1969 when he wrote the screenplay for and acted in the play "Flight No. 172". The play was a success and ran for thirty continuous years.
He then ventured into film direction despite not having worked as assistant director to anybody. In an interview he said "Actually neither acting nor direction was my goal when I got a chance to venture into cinema. I just wanted to be a writer. But when a producer approached me to make one of my plays into a film and offered me direction too, I took it up". His first feature film was Ivargal Vidhyasamaanavargal, which according to himself, "proved commercially viable" but his second film Matravai Neril, which he got to make, even before his first was completed, was commercially successful. The film made with newcomers, took just 25 days to complete the shoot, and ran for 100 days. He later directed two films under K. Balachander's banner, Anne Anne and Oru Pullanguzhal Adupputhugirathu and wrote the comedy track in Balachander's directorial Nizhal Nijamagiradhu besides acting in it. His film Vaa Indha Pakkam was dubbed in Telugu and introduced Mouli to the Telugu industry. The same producer approached him to do a direct Telugu film. He did not know the language but with the help of popular Telugu writer Jandhyala who translated his script, he made the film Patnam Vachina Pativrathalu with Chiranjeevi and Radhika. The film was successful, running for 280 days. he made over 20 Telugu films in the next 15 years.

Personal life

Mouli is married and has two children – a daughter and a son. His daughter Shravanthi is a carnatic singer. He has a brother, S. B. Khanthan who is also a film and creative director.

Filmography

As director and writer

As writer only

As actor

; Films

Note: all films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1973	Suryakanthi	Sama
1974	Kai Niraya Kasu
1974	Anbai Thedi
1975	Anbe Aaruyire	Alamelu's husband
1975	Maalai Sooda Vaa
1978	Nizhal Nijamagiradhu	Manmatha Naidu
1983	Oru Pullanguzhal Adupputhukirathu
1984	Mahanagaramlo Mayagadu		Telugu film
1985	Anney Anney	Krishnagiri
1985	Oru Malarin Payanam
1986	Unnidathil Naan	Francis
1989	Apoorva Sagodharargal	Mano's father
1992	Pranadaata		Telugu film
1997	Pistha	Dharmaraj
1998	Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen	Viswanathan
1998	Kaathala Kaathala	Balamurugan
1998	Time	Natarajan
1999	Unnai Thedi	Sivaraman
2000	Sandhitha Velai	Sivaraman
2000	Pennin Manathai Thottu	Ganapathy
2001	Alli Thandha Vaanam	Lakshmipathi
2001	Kunguma Pottu Gounder	School principal
2003	Nala Damayanthi	Immigration Officer	Director of this movie
2004	Cheppave Chirugali	Nirmala's father	Telugu film
2006	Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam	Chandramohan
2006	Unakkum Enakkum	Krishnayya
2008	Poi Solla Porom	Krishnayya
2008	Pirivom Santhippom	Annamalai
2009	Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru	Srinivasan
2010	Theeradha Vilaiyattu Pillai	Karthik's father
2010	Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam	Bilagiri James
2010	Kadhal 2 Kalyanam
2011	180	S. V. S. Murthy	Bilingual film
2013	Pattathu Yaanai
2018	Seethakaathi	Parasuraman
2019	Embiran	Jeya's grandfather
2020	Mookuthi Amman	Engels' grandfather
2021	Maara	Velayya	Amazon Prime film