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| Priyadharshan |
Priyadarshan (Malayalam, Hindi: प्रियदर्शन) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He directed numerous commercially successful movies in Malayalam cinema in the 1980s and 1990s. He is one of the directors who brought attractive cinematography and rich background music to Malayalam movies. In Bollywood, he is known for making remakes of Malayalam films, which include Gardish (1993)(Kireedam), Hera Pheri (2000)(Ramjirao Speaking), Hulchul (2004)(Godfather),"Kyunki" (Thalavattam)and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007)(Manichithrathazhu). His trade mark signature is the David Lean-like shots and sequences he puts in most of his films such as Abhimanyu (1991), Thenmavin Kombath (1994), Kala Pani (1996), and Kanchivaram (2008). |
Priyadarshan hails from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala where his father Poojappura Soman Nair, a dramatist of repute in Malayalam, worked as a librarian in a college affiliated to the University of Kerala. Greatly influenced by his father, Priyadarshan developed a reading habit, which he maintained all through his college life. He had read almost all the works of great writers by the time he completed his college studies. His fascination for comics and fairy tales reflects in his movies. As a child, Priyadarshan aspired to be a cricketer. However, his hopes of a career in cricket were cut short following an injury to his left eye by a cricket ball. He would later wear dark glasses when appearing in public.
Priyadarshan met his wife, Malayalam actress Lizy; who is the daughter of pookkatupadu Ealiyamma, on the sets of his second film. They worked together in twelve movies. He has two children, daughter Kalyani and son Sidharth. Megastar of the Malayalam industry Mohanlal is one of Priyadarshan's closest friends. Priyadarshan was Mohanlal's friend and senior in college in Thiruvananthapuram. Priyadarshan was a member of Kerala Students Union while Mohanlal was a member of Students' Federation of India. Currently he endorses Indian National Congress channel Jai Hind alongside Mohanlal, Jagathy Sreekumar, Asokan, and Meera Jasmin.
Around the same period many of his friends from Thiruvananthapuram joined the film industry including the superstar Mohanlal, Maniyanpilla Raju, singer M. G. Sreekumar, producer Suresh Kumar are a few among them. Priyadarshan is said to have ventured into films by chance. His first movie Poochakkoru Mookkuthi in Malayalam was a block buster. The film started a long association between Mohanlal and Priyadarshan, which resulted in a number of now-classic comedies in Malayalam, including Kilukkam, Chithram, Vellanakalude Nadu,Poochakkoru Mookkuthi and Boeing Boeing. His success is generally attributed to the new outlook, particularly slapstick comedy which is extensively used in his films. Mohanlal played the lead character in some of his most successful films. Their best work till date has been considered to be Chithram (Malayalam, 1988). Another movie Kilukkam was one of the biggest hits in the history of Malayalam cinema. In 1992, Priyadarshan remade the film in Hindi, as Muskurahat, starring Jay Mehta, Annu Kapoor, Revathi, Amrish Puri etc.
Foray into Hindi remakes
Apart from Malayalam films Priyadarshan has also directed a slew of Hindi language films, concentrating on remakes of Tamil and Malayalam films. His foray into Bollywood was with the movie Muskurahat (1992) remake of Malayalam film Kilukkam. This was a failure at the box office and it went largely unnoticed. his second unsuccessful Hindi film was Gardish, a remake of the Malayalam film Kireedam (1989).
He made his second foray into Hindi films with the remake of the acclaimed Kamal Haasan starrer Thevar Magan (Tamil) in Hindi. The film was titled Virasat and was made with the help of writer Vinay Shukla. The success of the film established Priyadarshan as a sought-after director in Bollywood along with the cast and crew of the film including Tabu, Ravi K. Chandran (cinemotography) and Anu Malik (music).
He later came up with a string of remakes including Hera Pheri (2000) (remake of Ramji Rao Speaking), Hungama (2003) (remake of Poochakkoru Mookkuthi), Hulchul (2004) (remake of Godfather), Garam Masala (2005) (remake of Boeing Boeing), Chup Chup Ke (2006) (remake of Punjabi House),Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) (Remake of Manichitrathazhu), Bhagam Bhag (2008) (Remake of Mannar Mathai Speaking) and Billu (2009) (Remake of Kadha Parayumbol).
Priyadarshan has won awards both from the State and Central government for his movies, His off beat film "Kanchivaram" was adjudged the best feature film in National film Awards - 2008. He made a mulitilingual Sirai Chaalai, KalaPani (originally made in malayalam), which told the story of freedom fighters in the jail at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which starred Mohanlal, Tabu, Prabhu Ganesan and Amrish Puri, received four National Film Awards including awards for Santosh Sivan (cinematography) and Sabu Cyril (art direction). Ilaiyaraaja's score in the movie was grand and symphonic, and was compared to the best of John Williams, Richard Strauss and Max Steiner.
Filmography
Name Year of release Language Cast Notes
Aakrosh 2010 Hindi Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Paresh Rawal
Bumm Bumm Bole 2010 Hindi Darsheel Safary, Atul Kulkarni, Rituparna Sengupta Remake of Children of Heaven(Iranian)
Khatta Meeta 2010 Hindi Akshay Kumar, Trisha Remake of Vellanakalude Nadu(Malayalam)
De Dana Dan 2009 Hindi Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy Remake of Vettam(Malayalam)
Billu 2009 Hindi Shah Rukh Khan, Irfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Kareena Kapoor(Guest Role), Priyanka Chopra(Guest Role), Deepika Padukone(Guest Role) Remake of Kadha Parayumbol (Malayalam)
Kanchivaram 2008 Tamil Prakash Raj National Award for Best Film.
Mere Baap Pehle Aap 2008 Hindi Akshaye Khanna, Genelia D'souza, Paresh Rawal, Shobhana Remake of Ishtam (Malayalam)
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2007 Hindi Akshay Kumar, Amisha Patel, Vidya Balan, Shiny Ahuja, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Joshi, Vineeth, Asrani, Tareena Patel, Rasika Joshi, Vikram Gokhale, Kaveri Jha Remake of Manichitrathazhu (Malayalam)
Dhol 2007 Hindi Sharman Joshi, Tusshar Kapoor, Kunal Khemu, Rajpal Yadav, Payal Rohatgi, Tanushree Dutta, Om Puri, Arbaaz Khan, Murli Sharma, Tiku Talsania, Asrani Remake of In Harihar nagar (Malayalam)
Chup Chup Ke 2006 Hindi Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Rajpal Yadav, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Sushma Reddy, Shakti Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Asrani, Manoj Joshi Remake of Punjabi House (Malayalam)
Malamaal Weekly 2006 Hindi Rasika Joshi, Om Puri, Ritesh Deshmukh, Innocent Vincent, Reema Sen, Shakti Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, Sudha Chandran, Rakhi Sawant, Rajpal Yadav Remake of Waking Ned
Bhagam Bhag 2006 Hindi Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Paresh Rawal, Lara Dutta, Tanushree Dutta, Arbaaz Khan, Jackie Shroff, Sharat Saxena, Rajpal Yadav, Shakti Kapoor, Maushmi Udeshi, Rudra V Kapila, Manoj Joshi, Razak Khan, Sahil Chandra, Gurvinderbhai Singh Remake of Mannar Mathai Speaking (Malayalam)
Kyon Ki... 2005 Hindi Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri, Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Rimi Sen Remake of Thalavattam
Garam Masala 2005 Hindi Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Rimi Sen, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal, Neha Dhupia, Daisy Bopanna, Nargis Bhageri, Neetu Chandra Remake of Boeing Boeing (Malayalam)
Vettam 2004 Malayalam Dileep, Bhavana Puri, Kalabhavan Mani, Radha Ravi, Jagathy, Innocent Remake of The French Kiss, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha
Hulchul 2004 Hindi Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Arbaaz Khan, Jackie Shroff, Amrish Puri, Laxmi, Farah Naz, Shakti Kapoor, Manoj Joshi, Asrani Remake of Godfather (Malayalam)
Hungama 2003 Hindi Akshaye Khanna, Aftab Shivdasani, Rimi Sen, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Shoma Anand, Manoj Joshi Remake of Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (Malayalam)
Kilichundan Mampazham 2003 Malayalam Mohanlal, Soundarya, Sreenivasan, Salim Kumar
Satyaghath: Crime Never Pays 2003 Hindi
Laysa Laysa 2003 Tamil Remake of Summer in Bethlehem (Malayalam)
Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar 2001 Hindi Sunil Shetty, Mahima Chaudhry Remake of Sanmanssulavarkku Samadhanam (Malayalam)
Kakkakuyil 2001 Malayalam (Mohanlal) Mukesh, Mohanlal, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathy, Innocent Partial Remake of A Fish Called Wanda
Snegithiye 2000 Tamil
Hera Pheri 2000 Hindi Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tabu, Gulshan Grover, Khulbhushan Kharbanda, Om Puri, Dinesh Hingoo, Namrata Shirodhkar (Special Appearance Remake of Ramjirao Speaking (Malayalam)
Megham 1999 Malayalam Mammootty, Pooja Batra, Dileep, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Cochin Haneefa
Doli Saja Ke Rakhna 1998 Hindi Akshaye Khanna, Jyotika Saravanan, Anupam Kher, Moushumi Chatterjee, Aruna Irani, Paresh Rawal, Mohnish Behl, Innocent Vincent Remake of Aniyathipravu (Malayalam)
Kabhi na Kabhi 1998 Hindi Jackie Shroff, Amrish Puri, Aishwarya Rai, Farida Jalal, Dimple Kapadia, Asrani, Mukesh Rishi, Raj Babbar, Paresh Rawal
Saat Rang Ke Sapne 1998 Hindi Arvind Swamy, Juhi Chawla Remake of Thenmavin Kombathu (Malayalam)
Chandralekha 1997 Malayalam Mohanlal, Pooja Batra, Sukanya, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Innocent Remake of While you were sleeping
Virasat 1997 Hindi Anil Kapoor, Pooja Batra, Tabu Remake of Thevar Magan(Tamil)
Kala Pani 1996 Malayalam [Also dubbed to Tamil and Hindi] Mohanlal, Tabu, Prabhu Ganesan, Amrish Puri, Annu Kapoor, Sreenivasan, Nedumudi Venu
Minnaram 1994 Malayalam (Mohanlal) Mohanlal, Shobana, Thilakan, Jagathy, Lalu Alex
Thenmavin Kombath 1994 Malayalam Mohanlal, Shobana, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Kaviyoor Ponnamma
Gandeevam 1994 Telugu Mohanlal, Balakrishna
Gardish 1993 Hindi Remake of Kireedom (Malayalam)
Midhunam 1993 Malayalam Mohanlal, Urvashi, Sreenivasan, Innocent, Jagathy
Muskurahat 1992 Hindi Remake of Kilukkam (Malayalam)
Adwaitham 1992 Malayalam Mohanlal, Revathi, Jayaram, Innocent, M. G. Soman, Srividya
Abhimanyu 1991 Malayalam Mohanlal, Geetha, Shankar, Cochin Haneefa, Ganesh Kumar, Jagadish
Kilukkam 1991 Malayalam Mohanlal, Revathi, Jagathy, Thilakan, Murali, Innocent
Nirnayam 1991 Telugu Mukesh, Nagarjuna Akkineni, Amala Remake of Vandanam
Gopura Vasalile 1991 Tamil Karthik Muthuraman Remake of Pavam Pavam Rajakumaran
Akkare Akkare Akkare 1990 Malayalam Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, Parvathy, Mukesh, Nedumudi Venu, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, M. G. Soman, Maniyanpilla Raju, Jagadish
Kadathanadan Ambadi 1990 Malayalam Prem Nazir, Mohanlal, Cochin Haneefa
Vandanam 1989 Malayalam Mohanlal, Girija, Mukesh, Nedumudi Venu, M. G. Soman, Ganesh Kumar, Cochin Haneefa, Jagadish Remake of Stakeout
Chithram 1988 Malayalam Mohanlal, Ranjini, Lizy, Sreenivasan, Nedumudi Venu, Poornam Vishwanathan, Jagadish, Base line from GuruDutt's Hindi Movie Mr & Mrs 55
Aryan 1988 Malayalam Mohanlal, Ramya Krishnan, Shobana, Sreenivasan, Maniyanpilla Raju, M. G. Soman
Mukundetta Sumithra Vilikkunnu 1988 Malayalam Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, Nedumudi Venu, Ranjini Remake of Katha
Mazha Paiyunnu Madhallum Kottunnu 1988 Malayalam Mohanlal, Sreenivasan It was scripted by Sreenivasan
Vellanakalude Nadu 1988 Malayalam Mohanlal, Shobana, Lizy, Sreenivasan, Maniyanpilla Raju, M. G. Soman, Jagadish, Story line from R K Narayan's The Engine Trouble.
Oru Muthassi Katha 1988 Malayalam Vineeth, Ganesh Kumar, Nirosha, Thyagarajan, M. G. Soman, Jagathy
Cheppu 1987 Malayalam Mohanlal, Lizy, Sulakshana, Ganesh Kumar
Hello, My Dear Wrong Number 1986 Malayalam Mohanlal, Lizy, Mukesh, Maniyanpilla Raju, Jagathy
Thalavattam 1986 Malayalam Mohanlal, Mukesh, Karthika, Lizy, M. G. Soman, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathy Remake of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Dheem Thariktia Thom 1986 Malayalam Mukesh, Lizy, Shankar, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Jagathy
Ayalvasi Oru Daridravasi 1986 Malayalam Mukesh, Prem Nazir, Nedumudi Venu, Shankar, Menaka, Seema, Sukumari
Mazha Peyyunnu Maddalam Kottunnu 1986 Malayalam Mohanlal, Mukesh, Sreenivasan, Lizy, Mammootty (guest), Jagathy
Rakkuyilin Rajassadasil 1986 Malayalam Mammootty, Suhasini, Adoor Bhasi
Aram + Aram = Kinnaram 1985 Malayalam Mohanlal, Shankar, Sreenivasan, Maniyanpilla Raju, Lizy, Thilakan
Boeing Boeing 1985 Malayalam Mohanlal, Mukesh, Menaka, M. G. Soman, Jagathy Remake of Boeing boeing
Punnaram Cholli Cholli 1985 Malayalam Mukesh, Shankar, Zarina Wahab, Bharath Gopi
Parayanumvayya Parayathirikkanumvayya 1985 Malayalam Mammootty, Mohanlal, Shankar, Menaka, Lizy
Onnanam Kunnil Oradi Kunnil 1985 Malayalam Mohanlal, Shankar, Sreenivasan, Lizy, Sukumari
Odaruthammava Aalariyam 1984 Malayalam Mukesh, Sreenivasan, Jagadish, Lizy Inspired from Chashme buddoor
Poochakkoru Mookkuthi 1984 Malayalam Mohanlal, Shankar, Nedumudi Venu, M. G. Soman, Menaka, Jagathy
Awards
Priyadarshan has won awards both from the State and Central government for his movies, His off beat film "Kanchivaram" was adjudged the best feature film in National film Awards - 2008. He made a mulitilingual Sirai Chaalai, KalaPani (originally made in malayalam), which told the story of freedom fighters in the jail at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which starred Mohanlal, Tabu, Prabhu Ganesan and Amrish Puri, received four National Film Awards including awards for Santosh Sivan (cinematography) and Sabu Cyril (art direction). Ilaiyaraaja's score in the movie was grand and symphonic, and was compared to the best of John Williams, Richard Strauss and Max Steiner.
National Film Awards:
* 2008 - Best Film - Kanchivaram
Kerala State Film Awards:
* 1995 - Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film - Kala Pani
* 1994 - Kerala State Film Award for Best film with popular appeal and aesthetic value - Thenmavin Kombathu
Asianet Film Awards:
* 2008 - Special Honour Jury Award for Outstanding Contribution to Indian cinema
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