[3] His notable works as a dialogue writer in Tamil Cinema include Nayakan, Guna, Baashha and Pudhupettai.

[5] As a child, he was highly inspired by his mother, who was a Tamil scholar and a Siromani in Sanskrit, used verses of Sangam and other ancient literature to motivate him whenever he was emotionally down.

Despite having a poor relationship with his father due to average academic performance especially Maths, he continued his deep interest in literature with his mother's support.

After completing his studies at Wesley High School, he joined a tractor company TAFE in Chennai for a job like any middle class youth.

But, with hunger for literature, he quit the job of stenographer in a tractor company and started work on poems first and gradually moved towards short stories & novels.

In his stories, women were not merely gendered cardboard cutouts but fully sentient individuals, with bodies, dreams, desires, yearnings and frustrations.

Also, he traveled in trucks to longer distance for his 'Irumbu Kuthirai' (Iron horse) novel.

Balakumaran's contribution to films was largely in the field of screenplay making and dialogue writing.