Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair, popularly known as MT, is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He is a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and is one of the masters of post-Independence Indian literature. He was born in Kudallur, a small village in the present day Anakkara panchayath in Pattambi Taluk, Palakkad district (Palghat), which was under the Malabar District in the Madras Presidency of the British Raj. He shot into fame at the age of 20 when, as a chemistry undergraduate, he won the prize for the best short story in Malayalam at World Short Story Competition conducted by The New York Herald Tribune. His debut novel Naalukettu, wrote at the age of 23, won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958. His other novels include Manju (Mist), Kaalam (Time), Asuravithu and Randamoozham. The deep emotional experiences of his early days have gone into the making of MT's novels. Most of his works are oriented towards the basic Malayalam family structure and culture and many of them were path-breaking in the history of Malayalam literature. His three seminal novels on life in the matriarchal family in Kerala are Naalukettu, Asuravithu, and Kaalam. Randamoozham, which retells the story of the Mahabharatha from the point of view of Bhimasena, is widely credited as his masterpiece.
Meera Jasmine is an Indian actress who appears in South Indian films, primarily Malayalam and Tamil films. She was a popular lead actress during the 2000s.
C. P. Surendran was born in 1958. He is a poet, novelist and journalist from India.
N. P. Mohammed, popularly known by his initials N. P., was an Indian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Malayalam language. Along with his contemporaries like M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. V. Vijayan, Kakkanadan, and Kamala Das, he was known to have been one of the pioneers of modernist movement in Malayalam fiction. He was the president of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and a recipient of several awards including Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel, Lalithambika Antharjanam Award, Padmaprabha Literary Award and the Muttathu Varkey Award.
Saji Surendran is an Indian film director in Malayalam films, known for his commercially successful comedies, most notably Ivar Vivahitharayal (2009) and Happy Husbands (2010).
K. R. Meera is an Indian author and journalist, who writes in Malayalam. She was born in Sasthamkotta, Kollam district in Kerala. She worked as a journalist in Malayala Manorama but later resigned to concentrate more on writing. She started writing fiction in 2001 and her first short story collection Ormayude Njarambu was published in 2002. Since then she has published five collections of short stories, two novellas, five novels and two children's books. She won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009 for her short-story, Ave Maria. Her novel Aarachaar (2012) is widely regarded as one of the best literary works produced in Malayalam language. It received several awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award (2013), Odakkuzhal Award (2013), Vayalar Award (2014) and Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award (2015). It was also shortlisted for the 2016 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
P. Surendran is an Indian writer, columnist, art critic and a philanthropist. He has published over 30 books, including works of fiction, travelogues and general writings, in Malayalam and also a collection of short stories in English. He is a teacher currently working in Kumaranellur school, Palakkad district. He is a recipient of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.
Benyamin is an Indian novelist and short story writer in Malayalam language from Nhettur, Kulanada, near Pandalam of the south Indian state of Kerala. He lived in the Kingdom of Bahrain from 1992 to 2013, before returning to Kerala. His works appear regularly in Malayalam publications in Kerala.
Goat Days is a 2008 Malayalam novel about an abused migrant worker in Saudi Arabia written by Bahrain-based Indian author Benyamin.
Shahnaz Habib is an Indian essayist, fiction writer, travel writer, and translator based in the United States of America. Her English translation of the novel Jasmine Days, from the Malayalam original by the author Benyamin, won the 2018 JCB Prize for Literature, which each year recognizes a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer. She teaches writing at Bay Path University and The New School, and works as a consultant for the United Nations.
Chiki Sarkar is a book publisher. She is a co-founder of Juggernaut Books.
Uppum Mulakum is an Indian Malayalam-language sitcom broadcast on Flowers. The show was premiered on 14 December 2015. It crossed 1,000 episodes in 2019. The sitcom depicts the everyday life of Balachandran Thampi, his wife Neelima, and their five children. The main cast includes Biju Sopanam, Nisha Sarang, Rishi S. Kumar, Al Sabith, Shivani Menon, Baby Ameya, and Juhi Rustagi.
Take Off is a 2017 Indian malayalam-language drama thriller film, based on the ordeal of Indian nurses in the city of Tikrit, Iraq, in 2014. The film is the directorial debut of editor Mahesh Narayan, with Parvathy Thiruvothu, Kunchacko Boban and Fahadh Faasil starring in the lead roles. It is written by Mahesh Narayan and P. V. Shajikumar. The film was shot in various parts of Dubai and Kerala. Take Off was released on 24 March 2017. The film was a blockbuster at the box office. The film won a Special Jury Award at the 48th International Film Festival of India and Parvathy won the award for Best Female Actor, becoming the first ever Malayalam film actor to win the award. For her most notable performance as Sameera, Parvathy also received her second Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress, a second Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Malayalam and her first Special Jury Mention at the National Film Awards.
Arabi Ponnu is a Malayalam novel jointly written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair and N. P. Mohammed. The theme is the smuggling of gold from Arab countries, especially Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in its early period.
Juggernaut Books is digital book publishing house headquartered in New Delhi, India. The publisher emphasizes on short length books written by new writers. It also allows writers to self-publish their books through their digital platform. The digital books are distributed via their website and mobile apps. They also power the content library( around 70,000 books ) of the Airtel Books app by Airtel. They also publish physical books which are distributed and warehoused by Hachette India.
Manesh Madhavan is an Indian cinematographer from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talent Campus at 58th Berlin International Film Festival 2008. A student of Legendary Polish Filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, Ellen Kuras ASC and Santosh Sivan and his credits includes many feature films, documentaries, short films, advertisement films and music videos. Also worked as a Director of Photography for the Diploma Film of the famous University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) the United States of America. Most of his works received International acclaims and also represented in the festivals all over the world including Venice International Film Festival and The Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival, France. He won the Kerala State Film Award for Cinematographer in 2018 for the movie Aedan
Aedan: Garden of Desire is a 2018 Indian Malayalam film directed by Sanju Surendran. The film stars Abhilash Nair, George Kurian, Prasant, Nandini Sree, Sunny, Jojo George, and Dileep Kumar. Aedan is more of a folktale in its elemental qualities and evocation of eternal human passions. Following the tradition of Indian epic narration, the structure of the film is that of a story within a story. The stories attempt a microscopic examination of the human psyche. As the story reverses through the emotional universes of the characters, the idyllic landscape of a beautiful Kerala village takes on diabolic dimensions in the night.
JCB Prize for Literature is an Indian literary award established in 2018. It is awarded annually with 25 lakh INR prize to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer. The Literary Director is Mita Kapur. The winners will be announced each November with shortlists in October and longlists in September. It has been called "India's most valuable literature prize".
Sudhakar P. Nair, popularly known as Sudhakar Mangalodayam, was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature and a story and screenwriter in Malayalam cinema. He was known for his popular novels as well as for the screenplay of Njan Ekananu, a 1982 Malayalam language film. He was the author of over 50 novels and wrote the story for films viz. Kariyilakkattu Pole, Nandini Oppol and Vasantha Sena.
