Balachandra Menon to contest elections?

National Award winning Malayalam director, actor, writer, lyricist and producer Balachandra Menon said on Saturday that he planned to contest the Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate from Thiruvananthapuram.

"One thing is certain. The offer is not from the United Democratic Front or Left Democratic Front, so obviously it should be from the National Democratic Alliance. The offer has been there for some time. But as I am a film personality, I feel it would be best to be an independent candidate. Thus if I decide to contest it won't be under the symbol of any political party." Menon told a news agency.

Menon, 55, won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his role of Ismail in the film Samantharangal in 1998. Along with Fazil and Padmarajan, Menon has introduced the most number of newcomers into Malayalam and the notable ones are Shobana, Parvathy, Maniyan Pillai Raju, Karthika, Annie, and Nandini (Kausalya). He was last seen on the silver screen in 2006 in Classmates, which was the highest grossing Malayalam film of that year.