Malayalam cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Malayalam language, which is widely spoken in the state of Kerala and Lakshadweep islands of india.Malayalam cinema includes the commercial film industry, sometimes known as Mollywood, as well as independent cinema made in Malayalam.
Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian music and a cultural icon of Kerala. Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, in a career spanning six decades. He is often referred to as Gaanagandharvan. Yesudas holds the record for singing 11 songs in different languages in a single day. He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s.
Kerala music has a complex history distinct from Malayalam poetry, with which it is often associated. Though it is often driven by poetry, Kerala also has its roots in Carnatic music. Songs have always been a significant part of early Malayalam literature dating back to the 9th century CE. The significance of music in Kerala's culture can be deduced from the musical poetry that developed in the Malayalam language long before prose. As music evolved in the region, various branches emerged from it
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning around five decades, she has recorded over 25,000 Songs in various Indian languages languages such as Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Tulu, Badaga, Banjara, Urdu, Assamese, Gujarati and Sanskrit as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, Urdu (Pakistan), English and French.
Hariharan Anantha Subramani is an Indian playback, bhajan and ghazal singer who predominantly sings in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu languages. He has also sung over 15,000 notable songs in 10+ languages including Marathi, Sinhala, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Odia, Bengali, Sanskrit, Gujarati and English. He is an established ghazal singer and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. Hariharan is widely regarded as one of the greatest playback singers in Indian cinema.
Thattil Antony Johnson, popularly known as Johnson Master, was an Indian film score composer and music director who has given music to some of the most important motion pictures of Malayalam cinema, including those for Koodevide, Namukku Paarkkan Munthiri Thoppukal, Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam, Vadakkunokkiyantram, Perumthachan, Njan Gandharvan, Ponthan Mada, and Bhoothakkannadi. Regarded as one of the finest composers in the industry, he was noted for his lyrical and expressive melodies together with simple but rich tonal compositions of thematic music. Johnson is a recipient of National Film Awards twice and Kerala State Film Awards five times. He has composed music for more than 300 Malayalam films, the most by any composer except for Devarajan. He was the first music director from Malayalam cinema to be honoured with the National film Awards. He died of a heart attack in Chennai on 18 August 2011.
Prithviraj Sukumaran is an Indian actor, producer and director primarily active in Malayalam cinema. He has also featured in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films, adding to over 100 films involving diverse genres and variety of roles. Prithviraj's accolades include a National Film Award, four Kerala State Film Awards, a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, seven SIIMA Awards and a South Filmfare Award.
Star Singer is an Indian music reality television competition, broadcast on Asianet and the show, which selected contestants in the age group of 15–35 years compete based on their skill in singing and entertainment. From season 1 to 7, text messages were sent by the shows' audience to vote for the best-performing participant and a small weightage of this score was considered for a candidate to be shortlisted to next round. From Season 8, voting was conducted on Disney+ Hotstar, Star Network's official OTT platform.The show also features a panel of judges who are prominent personalities in the Malayalam music industry who offer scores and evaluations of performance to the contestants in every stage of the competition. In 2009, Star Singer Junior was launched.
Madhusoodanan Jayachandran Nair is an Indian composer, singer, and musician. He has won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director a record number of nine times. In 2005, he also won the state award for best male singer. In 2015, he won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the film Ennu Ninte Moideen. He has composed music for 126 films.
Prithviraj Sukumaran is an Indian actor, director, producer and distributor who predominantly works in Malayalam language films. He also appears in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. He has worked in both mainstream and in parallel films. Prithviraj made his acting debut in 2002 with the Malayalam film, Nandanam. It was released after his second work Nakshathrakkannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari. Since then, he has acted in more than 100 films.
Sujith Vasudevan I, professionally credited as Sharreth, is an Indian music director and singer. He predominantly composes film scores and songs for Malayalam films, but has also composed many songs for the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi film industries too.
Nakshathrakkannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari is a 2002 Indian Malayalam-language romantic drama film directed by Rajasenan starring debutants Prithviraj Sukumaran and Gayathri Raghuram. Kalabhavan Mani, Narendra Prasad and Jagathy Sreekumar play supporting roles.
Gopi Sundar C. S. is an Indian music director, programmer, playback singer, songwriter, actor and performer who works in the Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil film industries.
Lathika is an Indian playback singer whose voice held sway over the music charts in the late 1980s-early 1990s in the Malayalam film industry. She has lent her voice mainly for Malayalam and Tamil film songs for over 300 films. Some of her hit songs of that time are ‘Kathodu Kathoram…' and ‘Devadoothar Padi…'(Kathodu Kathoram), ‘Poo Venam Pooppada Venam...', and ‘Tharum Thalirum...' (Chilambu).
Haseena Haneef, better known by her stage name Usha, is an Indian actress, singer and anchor, who has worked predominantly in Malayalam film industry. She has acted in more than 70 movies. Usha made her acting debut as a child artist in the 1984 film Nokkethadhoorathu Kannum Nattu.
Kamukara Purushothaman was an Indian singer. He was a noted playback singer in Malayalam cinema during its early years. He has recorded over 170 songs in 68 movies in various South Indian languages.
Raja Mohammad is an Indian film editor, who works in the Malayalam and Tamil film industries. He won the National Film Award for Best Editing for his work in Paruthiveeran (2007).
Kalpana Raghavendar is an Indian playback singer, winner of Idea Star Singer Malayalam and participant in Bigg Boss Telugu Season 1, songwriter and actor. She started her career as a playback singer at the age of five and, by 2013, had recorded 1,500 tracks and performed in 3,000 shows in India and abroad.
