S. Balasubramanian (28 December 1935 – 19 December 2014), better known as S. S. Balan, was an Indian journalist, filmmaker, political analyst, and media personality, as well as an aviculturist and agriculturist.^[1]

Balan worked in Indian media for over six decades as the editor of the magazine Ananda Vikatan, and as the managing director of Gemini Studios since 1956. He was the chairman emeritus of the Vikatan Group, having retired from active involvement at the company.

Born on 28 December 1935 in Madras, Balan grew up studying in Presentation Convent, Church Park, and P.S. High School before completing his B.Com. at Loyola College in Madras.^{[citation needed]}

Born to S. S. Vasan and Pattammal Vasan, Balan was the second child and only son, with an older sister named Lakshmi Narayani. The family lived in their ancestral home on Edward Elliots Road which was later renamed as Radhakrishnan Salai.^[2] The house has since been converted to an office building.^[3] Balan was groomed to take on the mantle of running the Gemini and Vikatan companies owned by his father. He was made the joint managing director on 26 August 1956 at the age of just 19. Balan worked alongside his father and took over the media empire after his father’s death on 26 August 1969.^{[citation needed]}

Ananda Vikatan, the flagship weekly magazine of VasVikatanan Publications, was founded in 1926 and bought in 1928 by S. S. Vasan. It is one of the top-ranked publications in Tamil and also one of the oldest vernacular magazines in the world with around half a million readers.^[4] In the eight decades of family ownership, Vikatan rose to prominence across the Tamil-speaking populations and also identified, introduced, and nurtured the careers of people in Indian media, literature, and arts.^[5]

Balan entered Ananda Vikatan as joint managing director and joint chief editor on 26 August 1956 and became managing director of the organization on 26 August 1969 on the death of his father S. S. Vasan. Due to his position as managing director of both Ananda Vikatan and Gemini Studios, he earned the moniker "M.D." among Chennai media circles in the 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

In 1987, Balan was at the center of a free speech fight when the Privileges Committee of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly sentenced him to 3 months of prison time due to the publication of a cartoon satire^[6][7][8][9] on the front cover of Ananda Vikatan.^[10][11] He was let out of jail after two days of media outcry and, against the state legislature before the Madras High Court in 1994, won the case, received 1,000 rupees in compensation, and put the money inside a frame as display in his office.^[7][6][12]

Contributing to Tamil journalism, Balan created a mentorship program for student journalists and helped bring many generations of media professionals into the field.^[13][14][15] He was widely known and respected by the media fraternity for having been a mentor to senior editors, journalists, media professionals, writers, etc., and having assisted and funded the growth of a large number of other media organizations and publications such as helping his friend Cho Ramaswamy launch Thuglak magazine.^[16]

S Balan mentored various writers in Tamil such as Manian, Sujatha, Balakumaran, Crazy Mohan, Madhan,^[17] Rajesh Kumar^[18] and more. He has inspired many people with his ideals, values, convictions, and opinions.^[19] Vikatan also publishes books and now is a group that puts out nine magazines in Tamil and was one of the first in the country to adopt computerized typesetting and to go digital. An achievement was the publication of the Tamil version of the concise Encyclopædia Britannica.^[20] However, after Balasubramanian stepped down from the editorial position of the group at 70, the content of the magazines and altered presentation came under flak from its readers.^[21]

Balan was married to Saroja Balan. They had seven children - six daughters and one son named B. Srinivasan who is now the managing director of the Vikatan Group. Balan's mother, Pattamal Vasan, continued to be a dominant force in his life until her death in 1996. Balan died in December 2014 at the age of 78 due to a heart attack, survived by wife, six daughters, and one son.^[22] Balan had a bird sanctuary at Padappai.