R Balakrishnan, better known as R balki, is a popular Indian film director and a screenwriter. He is also the Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the advertising agency Lowe Lintas.

After finishing college his passion was film making. With the aim of accomplishing his dreams, he applied for a course in film direction at the Madras Film Institute. However, he opted out of the course and got himself enrolled into a Masters in Computer Application course in a different college. He saw an ad in the papers for Mudra that asked people to send in 100 words describing who they were, which Balki accomplished easily and impressed his employers.

Balki soon began working for Mudra. His idol was Ramesh Sippy and when he started his film career, he was keen to follow in his footsteps. However, an opportunity to meet Sippy only came much later.

Balki's ideas have included the popular tag line “Daag Achche Hain” for the detergent brand 'Surf Excel' and “Jaago Re” for 'Tata Tea' commercials, as well as, the catchy “Walk and Talk” for ‘Idea Cellular’ advertising campaign.

He then began to work on films. His debut film Cheeni Kum (2007) which he both wrote and directed, starred Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu. The film’s unusual storyline was critically acclaimed and his way of directing was much appreciated by the masses.

His second film was Paa (2009), a successful endeavour that was both critically appreciated and a box office hit. The film brought him recognition and his work was noticed by some of the eminent personalities of the industry. It also won him several awards.

He made his production debut with the Sridevi starrer English Vinglish (2012), which was once again a huge success.

His most recent release as director and writer is the gender role bashing Ki And Ka (2016) starring Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor.