In 1992 , Mahendra made '' Vanna Vanna Pookkal '' which was produced by S. Dhanu . The film had a 100-day run and won the award for the " Best Regional Film " at the 39th National Film Awards . During this time M. Night Shyamalan , then a newcomer , approached Mahendra to be the cinematographer for his directorial debut '' Praying with Anger '' to which he refused . The next year , he remade Mahesh Bhatt 's '' Arth '' in Tamil as '' Marupadiyum '' . Mahendra made the film as he felt it was close to his personal life . He then came up with a full-length comedy '' Sathi Leelavathi '' in 1995 which was produced by Kamal Haasan . The following year , he made a comeback in Bollywood through '' Aur Ek Prem Kahani '' , a remake of his Kannada film '' Kokila '' . He then made '' Raman Abdullah '' ( 1997 ) , which deals with a friendship between two friends belonging to different religions . The film 's shoot became the epicentre of a dispute that arose between the Tamil Film Producers Council and Film Employees Federation of South India ( FEFSI ) . It was reported that members of FEFSI had stopped the filming of '' Raman Abdullah '' as Mahendra was engaging outside cast members in the film . This led FEFSI to go for an indefinite strike which affected to the delaying of several Tamil films . The film received negative reviews and failed at the box-office
39th National Film Awards
39th National Film Awards
Balu Mahendra