Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, Elippathayam won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival, and Most Original Imaginative Film of 1982 by the British Film Institute. Rajiv Anchal's Guru (1997), Salim Ahamed's Adaminte Makan Abu (2011) and Lijo Jose Pellissery's Jallikkattu (2019) were Malayalam films sent by India as its official entries for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards.
Koduri Marakathamani Keeravani is an Indian film composer, playback singer, and lyricist, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema along with other languages including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam.
Alphons Joseph is a music director and playback singer in the Malayalam film industry who got a break as a film music composer after composing for the film Vellithira. Alphons is also noted for singing the famous song "Aaromale" from the film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, which was composed by A. R. Rahman.
Thazhathupurakkal Karunakara Panicker Rajeev Kumar is a National Award-winning Indian director of Malayalam films, from Trivandrum. He is the winner of five Kerala State Film Awards for Best Film, Director, Story Writer & Script Writer, a show director, theatre actor and percussionist (Mridangam). He is a founding member and leader of the musical band Blue Birds in 1980 and Super Mimics, a comedy show in 1979. He is also the Kerala University winner of Mono Act in the University Youth Festivals 1980–1982 and Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy winner for Mono Act 1979–1982.
Arabikkatha is a 2007 Indian Malayalam-language satirical-drama film directed by Lal Jose and written by Ikbal Kuttipuram. The film was a critical and commercial success in India and the United Arab Emirates. It deals with differences within the Communist movement, and was produced against a background of real-life splits in the ruling Communist Party in Kerala state, India.
Rock N' Roll is a 2007 Malayalam musical comedy film written and directed by Ranjith, starring Mohanlal, Lakshmi Rai, Mukesh, Lal, Siddique, Manoj K.Jayan, Rahman, Harisree Ashokan and Jagathy Sreekumar. The film tells the story of seven musicians in Chennai, the major centre of film production in South India. The film was released on November 9 coinciding with Deepavali. It received negative reviews and was considered a commercial disaster at the time of release. Over the years, the movie along with Mohanlal's performance has attained a cult status. Suraj Venjaramoodu's cameo role as a fraud musician was widely acclaimed and is often considered to be one of his early breakthroughs.
Rahul Raj is an Indian music composer. He has composed and produced scores and soundtracks for Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil movies. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music and holds a postgraduate degree in scoring for films, TV and video games.
Prashant Pillai is a music producer and composer from India.
Gopi Sundar C. S. is an Indian music director, programmer, playback singer, songwriter, actor and performer who works prominently in Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil film industries. He started his career composing music for television commercials, has nearly 5,000 jingles to his credit. As a keyboard programmer, he has collaborated with many music directors including the composer duo Vishal–Shekhar. He has won several accolades for his soundtrack albums and film scores, including a National Film Award, a Kerala State Film Award, and two Filmfare Awards South.
Matteo Zingales is an Australian film music composer who has won the AACTA Award for Best Original Score for a Feature Film for two years running. In 2013, he shared the award with Jono Ma for Best Score for Not Suitable for Children (2012), and in 2012, Zingales, Michael Lira and Andrew Lancaster shared the award for Best Score for The Hunter (2011).
Santhosh Narayanan is an Indian composer and musician in the Tamil film industry.
Edward Aneurin Williams was a British composer and electronic music pioneer, best known for his work on the BBC Television series Life on Earth, and as the creator of Soundbeam. Two of the documentaries he composed scores for were Academy Award winners, including Dylan Thomas (1961), which won an Oscar in 1963, and Wild Wings (1965), which won an Oscar in 1967.
Anil Johnson is an Indian film composer and record producer who works in Malayalam cinema. Besides feature films, he has composed for commercials, documentaries, corporate films, short films and music videos. Prior to becoming a mainstream score composer, he worked as an arranger for several other composers and bands in the Indian music industry. He was also directing television commercials in the mid-2000s.
Basil Joseph is an Indian film director and actor who works in the Malayalam film industry. He directed three films, Kunjiramayanam (2015), Godha (2017) and Minnal Murali (2021). All three films were a huge success both commercially and critically. Besides direction, Basil is also an actor and has acted in numerous films.
John P. Varkey was an Indian guitarist, songwriter and composer. He began his career as a session guitarist. He brought out three albums with Jigsaw Puzzle by the label BMG Crescendo which were innovative and well accepted by the new generation and led to the formation of band Avial. John discontinued from Avial and independently directed music for many Indian big time feature films with prominent productions and directors. His ideas and innovative sound textures made many films come to life. Varkey first came to prominence as a member of the Malayalam rock band Avial, which itself evolved out of a band called Jigsaw Puzzle. Varkey was the guitarist and songwriter for the Thrissur-based band, Slowpedalers.
Arun Alat is an Indian playback singer, music composer and Lyricist who made a space in Malayalam film industry as a singer with his debut song 'Swapnamoru Chaakku' from the movie Best Actor.
Isaac Thomas Kottukapally was an Indian film score composer, music director and script writer working mainly in Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. He scored music for several English documentaries and commercials.
Vijay Jacob, is an Indian music composer.
Anoop Krishnan is an Indian television actor, director and anchor, who works predominantly in Malayalam film industry. He is mainly noted for the role Kalyan in the television series Seetha Kalyanam telecasted in Asianet.
A for Apple is a 2019 Malayalam-language film directed by the duo B. Madhu and S. Kumar and produced by Sudarsanan Kanjiramkulam. The story was by P. F. Mathews and the screenplay was written by Rajesh Jayaraman. Jerry Amaldev is the music composer and Sreekumaran Thampi was the lyricist; Bijibal composed the background score. Tony Sigimon, Janvi Byju, Nedumudi Venu, Sheela, Salim Kumar, Devan, and Santhosh Keezhattoor acted in the film's major roles.
