Early life Mahendra was born in 1939 into a Sri Lankan Tamil family in the village Amirthakali near Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.[5][6] Born to a professor father,[7] he did his schooling at Methodist Central College and St. Michael's College, Batticaloa.[1][8] As a teenager, he was drawn towards films by his class teacher.[9] It was during this time he got an opportunity to watch classics such as Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Battleship Potemkin (1925), arranged by the teacher.[9] When he was at the sixth grade, he got an opportunity to witness the making of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (shot in Sri Lanka) during a school field trip.[10][11] Inspired by Lean's personality, Mahendra determined to become a film-maker.[9][11] "I used to cut my cinematography classes and attend classes conducted in the departments of direction, screenplay writing and editing. However, I used to get the top rank in cinematography, so the professor did not mind my going to other classes. My main concern at that time was direction and scripting with a little bit of interest in cinematography." —Mahendra in an interview to Frontline in 2013[12] Right from his childhood, Mahendra was interested in fine arts and literature. Upon completion of school, he joined the London University and graduated with a bachelors degree (honours) in science.[13] After his graduation, he returned to Sri Lanka and worked in Colombo as a draughtsman in the survey department for a brief period during which he edited a Tamil literary magazine titled Thyen Aruvi.[1] In Colombo, he worked as an amateur drama artist with Radio Ceylon and got acquainted with the Sinhala theatre groups.[1] Mahendra's passion for cinema prompted him to leave for India and join the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 1966.[1] He had to take up cinematography as he could not gain admissions to other disciplines.[11][14] At the institute he was exposed to world cinema as he got an opportunity to watch films made by François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, both associated with the French New Wave movement.[12] In 1969, Mahendra graduated from the institute with a gold medal.[11] Film career Debut as cinematographer Lean (left) and Ray (right) are two of Mahendra's biggest inspirations to become a filmmaker. As a fresh graduate from the FTII, Mahendra's early attempts to enter Tamil cinema were unsuccessful.[1] He got his first break as a cinematographer in 1971 in the Malayalam film Nellu.[11][15] Ramu Kariat, the director of Nellu, was impressed by A View from the Fortress, Mahendra's diploma film at the FTII.[8][10] Though the filming of Nellu began in 1971, production delays postponed its release for three years.[15] Meanwhile, Kariat signed up Mahendra for another film titled Maaya which released in 1972. However, P. N. Menon's Panimudakku (1972) got released before Maaya, thus becoming Mahendra's first release.[16] He continued to work in Malayalam films such as Sasthram Jayichu Manus