25 Facts About Priyadarshan

Priyadarshan was born on 30 January 1957 and is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam and Hindi cinema.

Priyadarshan was one of the first directors in India to introduce rich color grading, clear sound and quality dubbing through his early Malayalam films.

Priyadarshan began his career in Malayalam cinema in the early 1980s and was active throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Priyadarshan is known for adapting Malayalam films into Hindi, from his own work as well as from other films.

Priyadarshan received his early education at Government Model School, Trivandrum, and obtained a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University College Trivandrum.

Priyadarshan's father was a college librarian, which helped Priyadarshan to develop interest in books.

Priyadarshan 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.

Priyadarshan was influenced by the films of director P Venu.

Priyadarshan's friends followed him to Chennai, looking for a chance in films.

Priyadarshan has been working since 40 years in Indian cinema as a director and screenwriter.

Priyadarshan has directed over 95 Films in 4 Indian languages: Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

Priyadarshan directed Vellanakalude Nadu, based on a script by Sreenivasan, with Mohanlal in the lead role.

Priyadarshan successfully added ingredients required for Hindi audiences and the film was a huge hit, opening the doors of Bollywood to him.

In 1994, Priyadarshan directed his second and last Telugu film till date, Gandeevam, starring Balakrishna.

Priyadarshan was assigned the direction of the Miss World 1996 event that was held in Bangalore, which made him a known face around the country.

In 1996, Priyadarshan came up with his dream project, Kalapani, an epic period film based on Indian struggle for Independence scripted by T Damodaran.

In 1997, Priyadarshan directed two films, Chandralekha in Malayalam and Virasat a Hindi adaptation of Bharathan's Tamil film Thevar Magan, both super hits.

Priyadarshan joined with Mammooty after a long gap in 1999 for Megham.

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.

Priyadarshan made the comedy film Kakkakuyil in 2001, bringing back the old combo of Mohanlal and Mukesh, which was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

Priyadarshan returned to Malayalam films directing the Mohanlal starrer, Arabeem Ottakom P Madhavan Nayarum in Oru Marubhoomikkadha.

In late 2015, Priyadarshan announced a crime thriller film in Malayalam, with Mohanlal in the lead role.

Priyadarshan has won awards, given by the State and Central government for his movies.

Priyadarshan made a period epic film titled 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 and Sabu Cyril.

Priyadarshan was the Central Jury Chairperson of 64th National Awards for 2016.