Priyadarshan

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Priyadarshan Soman
Born (1957-01-30) 30 January 1957 (age 67)
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
Years active1982–present
Spouse
Lissy
​
​
(m. 1990; div. 2016)​
Children2; including Kalyani Priyadarshan
HonoursPadma Shri (2012)
Websitedirectorpriyadarshan.com

Priyadarshan (born 30 January 1957)[1] is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam and Hindi cinema. The massive success his movies enjoyed mirrors the collective conscience of the people, particularly the elite, of that era - a period with which the filmmaker is intimately connected.

Priyadarshan began his career in

Kaalapaani, and Chandralekha
.

He is known for adapting Malayalam films into Hindi, from his own work as well as from other films. Most notable such Bollywood films include Hera Pheri, Hungama, Hulchul, Garam Masala, Bhagam Bhag, Chup Chup Ke, De Dana Dan and Bhool Bhulaiyaa.

Early life

Priyadarshan received his early education at

University College Trivandrum.[citation needed]His father was a college librarian, which helped Priyadarshan to develop interest in books. He was a voracious reader during his teenage years, and during his time in college he started writing short plays and skits for All India Radio. He was influenced by the films of director P. Venu. His friends in those days included Mohanlal, M. G. Sreekumar, Suresh Kumar, Sanal Kumar, Jagadish, Maniyanpilla Raju and Ashok Kumar. It was then that Mohanlal entered in films. His friends followed him to Chennai, looking for a chance in films. Priyadarshan, with the help of Mohanlal, got a few chances to work as an assistant scriptwriter in a couple of films and started writing scripts, with some turning into success. Eventually, he had to come back to Kerala.[3]

Priyadarshan originally aspired to become a cricketer; after his left eye was damaged during a game, he quit the sport and turned to filmmaking.[4]

Film career

Priyadarshan has been working since 40 years in

Indian cinema
as a director and screenwriter. He has directed over 95 Films in 4 Indian languages: Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

1984–1987

In 1984, Priyadarshan, along with his close friends Suresh Kumar and Sanal Kumar, decided to produce a film as Shankar, the saleable hero, helped them in arranging finance from Thiruvenkadam, a top film financier. Mohanlal, who was by then a popular star, was selected as the parallel hero along with

Chinnamanikkuyile remained unreleased, while his success stint continued in Malayalam with Cheppu being a success.[citation needed
]

1988–1998

1988 was a landmark year in Priyadarshan's career. He directed

Bollywood with Muskurahat, again remake of his own Malayalam film Kilukkam which ended up as a disastrous flop.[citation needed
]

In 1993, he made a comeback in Hindi with

Kalapani took Priyadarshan's career path to new heights. This film, which was originally filmed in Malayalam, was also dubbed and released in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi simultaneously. Kalapani brought him several awards for the first time in his career. In 1997, Priyadarshan directed two films, Chandralekha in Malayalam and Virasat a Hindi adaptation of Bharathan's Tamil film Thevar Magan, both super hits. The success of Virasat made Priyadarshan a household name in Hindi cinema.[citation needed
] In the year 1998, Priyadarshan directed three films,
Mammooty after a long gap in 1999 for Megham. During this period Priyadarshan received a couple of offers from Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna, actors of Telugu industry to direct them, but declined them and moved on to his next Hindi project.[citation needed
]

2000–2016

In 2000,

Sunil Shetty, Tabu and Paresh Rawal, this film is now considered a landmark in the history of Hindi cinema. The film also gave birth to the Priyadarshan-Akshay Kumar team, which in later years produced several hits. After Hera Pheri, Paresh Rawal became another regular face in Priyadarshan films. This film was followed by a series of films in Hindi including Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar, Hungama, Hulchul, Garam Masala, and Kyon Ki. In the year 2000, Priyadarshan directed the Malayalam-Tamil bilingual Raakilipattu (Snegithiye in Tamil) starring Tabu and Jyothika, with story adapted from the Marathi film Bindhaast, an experimental film with all female characters, which was critically well received. The original plan was to release both versions simultaneously, but due to unknown reasons the Malayalam version was delayed and the Tamil version released first. The Malayalam as well as the dubbed Hindi version, Friendship, released only seven years later in 2007.[5][6]

Priyadarshan's

Chandrasekhar Azad was supposed begin filming in 2001, but the project was shelved due to unknown reasons.[7][8] During this period, Tamil actor Kamal Haasan was working on his ambitious film, Anbe Sivam
. After finishing the script, Kamal Haasan approached Priyadarshan to direct the film. The pre-production commenced; but after some differences of opinion between the director and the actor; Priyadarshan opted out from the project before the first schedule. This sudden setback led to the whole crew to run out of their schedules. Hence, the producers after convincing Kamal Haasan, quickly roped in Sundar.C to direct the film. Priyadarshan made the comedy film
Khatta Meeta, Aakrosh and Tezz failed to live up to the expectations. In 2013, Rangrezz
also failed at the box-office. In the meantime, Priyadarshan stunned everyone with Kanchivaram, an offbeat film that revolved around the weavers in Kanchipuram. Prakash Raj, who played the central character, won the National Film Award for Best Actor in 2008. Kanchivaram also won accolades at several film festivals.

Priyadarshan returned to Malayalam films directing the Mohanlal starrer,

Arabeem Ottakom P. Madhavan Nayarum in Oru Marubhoomikkadha. The 2013 film Geethaanjali starring Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph, and the 2014 film Aamayum Muyalum
did not do well at the box-office.

Priyadarshan promoting Rangrezz with Jackky Bhagnani and Priya Anand in 2013

In late 2015, Priyadarshan announced a crime thriller film in Malayalam, with Mohanlal in the lead role.[9][10] The production was confirmed and the title Oppam was announced in December 2015. The director started working on the film ahead of another big-budget film starring Mohanlal, which was delayed due to unfavourable weather in Russia, where the film was supposed to be shot.[11] The screenplay and dialogues are written by Priyadarshan himself which is based on the story by debutant writer Govind Vijayan. The film released to positive reviews[12] and emerged as a blockbuster, beating several records[13] and becoming the highest grossing Malayalam film of the year within 16 days of release.[14]

Priyadarshan at 46th International Film Festival of India in 2015

2018–present

In early 2018, he started pre-production on

Calicut from Portuguese invasion for almost a century. The film was eventually released on 2 December 2021. It received mixed reviews and failed at the box office. Before the release of Marakkar a spiritual sequel of his own 2003 Hindi film Hungama, titled Hungama 2 was released directly on 23 July 2021 on Disney+ Hotstar and received negative reviews. The film was loosely based on Priyadarshan's own 1994 Malayalam film Minnaram.[15]

In 2023, he produced and directed Corona Papers a Malayalam film starring Shane Nigam. The film was an official remake of a Tamil film 8 Thottakkal which itself was loosely inspired from a 1949 Japanese film, Stray Dog. The film was released on 6 April 2023 to positive reviews, and had a moderate performance in the box office. [16] In the same year, then he directed a Tamil film Appatha starring Urvashi in lead role was released directly on 29 July 2023 on JioCinema.[17][18]

Other work

Priyadarshan has also directed many advertisement films. His most popular commercials are for Coca-Cola, American Express, Nokia, Parker Pens, Asian Paints, Kinley and Max New York Life Insurance.[19]

Frequent collaborators

He frequently collaborated with actors like

Mamukoya
.


His multiple collaborations in Hindi include

Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri, Tinnu Anand, Shakti Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Joshi, Sharat Saxena, Arbaaz Khan, Jackie Shroff and Suniel Shetty
.

Filmography

Main article: Priyadarshan filmography

Personal life

He married actress

Lissy on 13 December 1990.[20]
The couple got divorced in 2016, actress Kalyani and Sidharth are their children.[21]

Awards and honours

Priyadarshan has won awards, given by the State and Central government for his movies. Thrice he was chosen for national award. His offbeat film

Kaalapani, in Malayalam, which told the story of freedom fighters in the jail at Andaman and Nicobar Islands; it starred Mohanlal, Tabu, Prabhu and Amrish Puri, and received four National Film Awards, including awards for Santosh Sivan (cinematography) and Sabu Cyril
(art direction). The film was dubbed and released in other languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. For Marakkar : Arabikadalinte Simham he received the National Award for Best Director.

Civilian Awards
National Film Awards
Kerala State Film Awards
Kerala Film Critics Association Awards
Filmfare Awards South
FilmFare Awards
Other Awards
Sports
  • Columnist for Malayala Manorama Newspaper for international cricket matches played in Kerala.
  • Chairperson of the Committee of Ceremonies for the 35th National Games held in Kerala in 2015.
Social
  • Rising Star Outreach of India – Served as Director from July 2014 till March 2019; Rising star is one of the largest leprosy eradication organization in the world, running welfare centres and educational institutions for leprosy affected people and their family.

Government of India's appointment under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting : Priyadarshan served as 'Chairperson', of the Feature Films Jury of the 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2019. He was the Central Jury Chairperson of 64th National Awards for 2016 (President's Award for the Year 2016 )

References

  1. ^ "Happy Birthday Priyadarshan: Mohanlal, Riteish Deshmukh and others wish Nimir director". The Indian Express. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  2. ^ "'Kamaal Dhamaal...' was a mistake: Priyadarshan". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013.
  3. ^ "Trivandrum days". The Hindu. 29 January 2010.
  4. ^ "What made Priyadarshan give up cricket?". The Times of India. 1 October 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  5. ^ "Snegithiye (2000)". IMDb.
  6. ^ "Howzzat? Priyan film releases and goes unnoticed!". Archived from the original on 13 June 2011.
  7. ^ "rediff.com, Movies:'I'm a greedy filmmaker':Priyadarshan". rediff.com.
  8. ^ "Bachchan Jr to star in international project". The Times of India. 12 August 2001.
  9. Filmibeat
    . Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  10. ^ Vikram, Raj (6 November 2015). "Mohanlal to play a blind man in Priyadarshan's 73 rd movie". Metromatinee.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  11. ^ James, Anu (15 December 2015). "Mohanlal-Priyadarshan to join hands for small budget film before Russian project?". International Business Times. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  12. ^ James, Anu (9 September 2016). "'Oppam' critics review: Comeback movie of Mohanlal, Priyadarshan duo". International Business Times. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  13. ^ "Oppam Box Office Collection: 6 Records Broken by the Mohanlal Starrer!". filmibeat.com. 28 September 2016.
  14. ^ "Oppam Beats Jacobinte Swargarajyam to be the Biggest Hit of 2016!". Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  15. ^ "Shilpa Shetty's Hungama 2 to premiere on Disney+Hotstar on July 23".
  16. ^ "Corona Papers Review | an Elaborate and Restructured Version of 8 Thottakkal with a Superb Sidhique". 6 April 2023.
  17. ISSN 0971-8257
    . Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  18. ISSN 0971-8257
    . Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  19. ^ Priyadarshan – Director's Reel – via YouTube.
  20. ^ "Lissy Priyadarshan, on her husband". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  21. ^ Unni, K. Warrier. "Never thought Sidharth had movies in mind: Priyadarshan on double National awards that came home". onmanorama.com.
  22. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  23. ^ "67th National Film Awards: Complete list (updating)". The Hindu. 22 March 2021.
  24. ^ "കേരള ഫിലിം ക്രിട്ടിക്‌സ് അവാര്‍ഡ് 1977 - 2012". Kerala Film Critics Association. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  25. ^ a b "Film critics awards announced". The Hindu. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  26. ^ "Director Priyadarshan gets MP government's Kishore Kumar award". The Indian Express. Khandwa. 14 October 2019.
  27. ^ "Priyadarshan felicitated with an honorary doctorate by Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science". Bollywood Hungama. 7 March 2022.
  28. ^ "സംവിധായകന്‍ പ്രിയദര്‍ശന് ഡോക്ടറേറ്റ്" [Priyadarshan bestowed with honorary doctorate]. Malayala Manorama (in Malayalam). 8 March 2022.

External links

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