RJ Balaji

Balaji Patturaj (born 20 June 1985), popularly known as RJ Balaji, is an Indian radio jockey, actor, television presenter, comedian and film director in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

He is best known as the host of the 92.7 Big FM shows The Night Show with RJ Balaji, Take it Easy and it's now defunct segment Cross Talk, where he made prank calls to unsuspecting victims.

After completing his BSc computer science from the Kumararani Meena Muthiah College of Arts in 2006, Balaji joined the Amrita School of Communication in Coimbatore for a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism, because he wanted to become like his cousin who worked at NDTV, but when he was asked to write a report on his hostel's canteen, the 56-word report contained 47 grammatical errors, and he soon realised that English journalism was not what he was interested in.

At that time he saw a newspaper advertisement of a radio station (Radio Mirchi Coimbatore) that auditioned for radio jockeys and he applied for it, though he "never knew what an RJ was back then".

He said that he almost did not get selected then when he sang a gaana but was finally selected in November 2006.

He has not completed his journalism course since.

Balaji started his career as a radio jockey at Radio Mirchi Coimbatore, where he hosted a three-hour morning drive show called Hello Coimbatore which dealt with social issues.

After four years he quit the job as he "didn't want to sound angry all the time" and returned to Chennai where his family and friends were living.

He joined at 92.7 Big FM because they gave him the freedom to plan and design his four-hour slot; thus the show Take it Easy was conceived.

The evening prime-time show was created to give people a "break from the serious stuff that they have to deal with during work hours and relax with the nonsense".

Balaji created another segment in Take it Easy, titled Cross Talk, where he made prank calls to unsuspecting victims, nominated by a friend, cousin, co-worker or neighbour.

On how the segment developed, Balaji said, "I was assigned to do a serious socially-relevant show in the beginning but Big [FM] gave me the chance to talk about anything in Take It Easy. Once when I was talking to a couple about something serious, people who listened found it funny. That's how Cross Talk happened".

Balaji described Radio Mirchi's Senthil Kumar, who taught him a radio and its basics at Coimbatore, as his favourite RJ, and said, "whatever I am right now is because of him."

Cross Talk became very popular among youths; Balaji uploaded several clips of the show on SoundCloud.

The links went viral, crossing over a million hits in a single week.

Besides India, most of the downloads were in the United States (over 20%), United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Seychelles, Germany and Spain.

The show earned him the moniker "Cross Talk Balaji".

In November 2011, Balaji and BIG FM RJ'S. Muthu and Ophelia conducted "Little RJ Hunt", a three-phased event organised as part of the radio station's Children's Day celebrations.

Balaji won the RJ of the Year (Tamil) and Best Programme Broadcast after 11 am (Tamil) awards for Take it Easy at the 2012 Indian Excellence in Radio Awards.

Later he was named among the Top 10 Promising Personalities of Tamil Nadu in 2012 by Ananda Vikatan Group.

In December 2012, Balaji discontinued Cross Talk, in response to the Suicide of Jacintha Saldanha.

Originally a radio jockey, Balaji is also active in other fields; he is known for his association with the television shows Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Dheva and Why This Kolaveri, and for his performance in the films Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013), Vadacurry (2014) Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015), Pugazh (2016) and LKG (2019) (as an actor), Mookuthi Amman (2020) and Veetla Vishesham (2022) (as an actor and a co-director).

Balaji told Sudhish Kamath in 2013 that he changed 27 houses and 11 schools while growing up in Chennai because his "mother just cannot stay in one place. She would move from Perambur to Thiruvanmiyur to Mylapore... no place close to each other."

When he was in college, Balaji realised that his strength was in interaction and that the attention and acclaim he received in his college cultural gave him confidence and he realised that he had to be in the media.

Balaji was the host for the 2013 event "BIG Manasa Thotta Singer" that was conducted by BIG FM. He has also been running the "RJ Balaji Skool of Radio Studies" since August 2013.

Three apps on Balaji have been developed: an Android app simply named "RJ Balaji", an iOS app titled "RJ Balaji Official", and a Windows Phone app as well.

In November 2013, he decided to stop the segment 120 Rs. on his show where he reviewed Tamil films after he had been severely criticised by actors and producers from the Tamil film industry.

A few months before, he had also been threatened by an employee from UTV Motion Pictures for his review of Settai.

Via Twitter, he announced, "I am a normal guy who wants to do good work every day and go home happy. I can't really handle the aftermath of every show on films. After a lot of thought, I have decided not to speak about films until there's tolerance and maturity among certain people from film fraternity, which is most unlikely to happen. So, '120 show' is no more".

He further stated, "I don't want to keep taking my work home. I have a one-and-half-year-old child and my wife is concerned about the phone calls I keep getting".

, the show still runs, where he only reviews Hindi and English-language films.

In July 2013, Balaji said that he would try remaining a radio jockey for at least 15 years, which he believes "no one has done in Chennai", and reiterated this in November 2015.

After India's Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar told in the Rajya Sabha that legal action would be taken against radio jockeys who ridicule members of parliament, Balaji in August 2014 cryptically told Deccan Chronicle, "When I was a teenager I would fight with my sister for a room. Today parliamentarians are doing the same thing, fighting like teenagers. How can I not make fun of them?", while fearing that even television anchors like Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai would be banned soon.

He has also been a presenter at many inter-school cultural events in Chennai, a cricket commentator, and has contributed to many social causes, such as providing relief support to the victims of the 2015 South India floods along with other actors.

Balaji was born on 20 June, and was raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

He has four siblings, one younger brother and three younger sisters.

He said that his father abandoned his family at an unspecified point.

In January 2015, Balaji, radio jockeys Girigiri, Ananthi, Mirdhula and actor R. Sarathkumar contributed to "Kodu Kondadu", an initiative by BIG FM and the non-governmental organisation BHUMI to supply impoverished children with stationary, toys and books.

In February, he was a host of the BIG Tamil Melody Awards at Chennai Trade Centre.

In July 2015, Balaji launched a new show titled Loose Talk.