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.
Priyadarshan is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam and Hindi cinema.
Malayala Manorama is a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, India by the Malayala Manorama Company Limited. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew, it was first published as a weekly on 14 March 1888, and currently has a readership of over 8 million. It is also the second oldest Malayalam newspaper in Kerala in circulation, after Deepika, which is also published from Kottayam. Manorama also publishes an online edition.
Malabar Gopalan Nair Sreekumar, better known as M.G. Sreekumar is an Indian playback singer, composer Bank employee, music producer, television presenter and film producer, Bank employee
Jayasurya is an Indian actor, distributor, sponsor, model, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist who works in Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a National Film Award, three Kerala State Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards South for acting and Best Actor at the Cincinnati Film Festival held in Cincinnati, US. Jayasurya has also appeared in a few Tamil films.
Vijay Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and actor. He has sung over 1000 film songs. Vijay works predominantly in the South Indian film industry, mostly in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi. He is the son of acclaimed singer K. J. Yesudas.
Elavunkal Joseph Philip, popularly known by his pen name Kanam EJ, was a Malayalam novelist, short story writer, and lyricist. Along with his contemporary, Muttathu Varkey, he was known for a genre of sentiment-filled romantic fiction known as painkili (janapriya) novel in Malayalam literature, written with the common man in mind. Philip started the well known Malayalam weekly Manorajyam and served as its editor.
Malekudy Joseph Antony, better known as Antony Perumbavoor is an Indian film producer, distributor, cinema exhibitor and actor, who works in Malayalam film industry. He began his career as a chauffeur to Mohanlal in 1987 and started appearing in brief roles in Malayalam films in 1990s. In 2000, he established the film production house Aashirvad Cinemas, which exclusively produces Mohanlal films. Antony owns the multiplex theatre chain Aashirvad Cineplexx and co-owns the film distribution company Maxlab Cinemas and Entertainments. He is the president of Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK).
Tharangini Records is the music company founded by noted Indian Playback singer K. J. Yesudas in 1980 at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. It was the first recording and distributing music label in Kerala from where Malayalam film songs on audio cassettes came out. Other than Malayalam, Tharangni also released songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, English, Malay, Arabic, Russian and Latin. Tharangni release albums under various labels, Tharangni, Tharangni or Ayaan, Bharath Sangeeth, 9th Angel Records, Diva Records, V Records & Entertainment, Amplify More, all licensed or incorporated under Dr. K. J. Yesudass Audio and Visuals Corporation Limited and Yesudass Media Private Limited.
Sithara Krishnakumar is an Indian playback singer, composer, lyricist, classical dancer and an occasional actor. She predominantly works in Malayalam cinema in addition to Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Sithara is a well known singer who is trained in Hindustani and Carnatic classical music traditions and is also a recognised ghazal singer. She is the recipient of several awards which includes three Kerala State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer.
Cheriyan Joseph, popularly known as Prem Prakash is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam television serials and a renowned producer in Malayalam movies. He is mainly known for supporting roles and character roles. He has produced 19 Malayalam films. He is known as Kariachan amongst his family, friends and cinema circles.
Neha Nair is an Indian playback singer and composer. Her debut was a duet with Job Kurian in the film Ritu, with music composed by Rahul Raj. She is a guest singer in the Malayalam rock band Avial.
Pulimurugan is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language epic action thriller film directed by Vysakh and produced by Tomichan Mulakuppadam through Mulakuppadam Films. The screenplay was written by Udayakrishna —half of the duo Udayakrishna and Sibi K. Thomas —in his first independent screenplay. The film stars Mohanlal in the titlular role, along with a huge ensemble cast including Jagapati Babu, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Lal, Vinu Mohan, Kishore, Bala, Noby Marcose, Siddique, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Nandhu, M. R. Gopakumar, Sudheer Karamana, Hareesh Peradi, Makarand Deshpande and Namitha. The film score and soundtrack were composed by Gopi Sundar, while cinematography and editing was handled by Shaji Kumar and Johnkutty respectively.
Maheshinte Prathikaaram is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language comedy drama film directed by Dileesh Pothan, in his directorial debut and produced by Aashiq Abu. The film stars Fahadh Faasil in the title role alongside a supporting cast including Aparna Balamurali, Anusree, Alencier Ley Lopez and Soubin Shahir. Written by Syam Pushkaran, the story is based on an incident in the life of Thampan Purushan from Thuravoor, Cherthala. Shyju Khalid was the film's cinematographer, and the music was composed by Bijibal.
Oppam (transl. Along) is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film directed by Priyadarshan from a story by Govind Vijayan. The film, produced by Antony Perumbavoor for Aashirvad Cinemas, stars Mohanlal, Anusree and Samuthirakani. The songs were composed by the group 4 Musics, while the score was composed by Ron Ethan Yohann. The cinematography and editing were handled by N. K. Ekambaram and M. S. Ayyappan Nair and the film is influenced by the basic concept of the 2011 Korean film Blind and the English film Cape Fear.
Lalloo Alphonse is a Malayali singer and assistant professor in English literature. She is a popular Singer and band performer with live performances top listed in YouTube and other social Medias. Singing the Indian Semi-Classical Music Hindi film Song "Mere dholna Sun" from Film Bhool Bhulaiya at the wedding eve of her brother is her most recognized performance. She sang Malayalam songs at college functions.
Jibin George Sebastian is an Indian music composer, lyricist and entrepreneur from Kochi, Kerala who predominantly work in Malayalam Movie Industry. He is the first Indian from Kerala to directly debut in Hollywood as the music composer of the song Sometimes I Can't Relate from the movie Unbridled. He entered into the movie industry through the English movie Unbridled starring oscar nominee Eric Roberts, T.C. Stallings, Jenn Gotzon, Dey Young etc. Later in 2019, he composed and written lyrics for the songs Parayu Engu Nee and Pranayan En Kanavil for the movie Rakshapurushan starring Deepak Menon. The songs were sung by Vijay Yesudas and Najim Arshad and Zee Music acquired the rights for the songs. He is also known for releasing multilingual album named Beat of Indian Youth for which former Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam has written lyrics. The album got Limca Book of Records in 2015 and he was awarded first prize in the Fame Music Awards organized by SAE Institute through an All Indian contest for the Tamil track Vaa Vaa Jaikalam he composed for the album Beat of Indian Youth. He has recently composed and written lyrics for a music album named Poradidam sung by Najim Arshad and Juta Hausla sung by Bollywood singer Alamgir themed to fight against Covid Pandemic His upcoming movie Elza has around 26 songs sung by singers including Vineeth Sreenivasan, Najim Arshad, Nithya Mammen etc. His life story was a subject for a TedX Talk
Oppam is a feature film soundtrack for the 2016 film of the same name directed by Priyadarshan and starred Mohanlal in the lead role. The film's six-song soundtrack was composed by 4 Musics, and featured lyrics written by Madhu Vasudevan, B. K. Harinarayanan and Sharon Joseph. The original score was composed by Ron Ethan Yohann in his Malayalam-film debut. The soundtrack album was released on the Satyam Audios label on 17 August 2016. The music was well received by critics and audiences, with the songs "Chinnamma Adi" and "Minungum Minnaminuge" becoming chartbusters.
The 40th Kerala Film Critics Association Awards, honouring the best Malayalam films released in 2016, were announced in March 2017.
