Ajayan, also known as Thoppil Ajayan, (8 April 1950 – 13 December 2018) was a

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

film director who is of note for his only feature film ''Perumthachan'' (''The Master Carpenter''). The film received positive reviews from critics worldwide. For this film, Ajayan won the

Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director The Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of sev ...

and Kerala State Film Award for Best Debut Director in 1990. The film also won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Popular Film in 1990 and was nominated for the

Golden Leopard The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to ...

award at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, ...

in 1992. In the

afterword An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed. An afterword may be written by someone oth ...

to his book ''The Master Carpenter'', author M. T. Vasudevan Nair wrote that Ajayan first approached him for a

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, ...

of his story ''Manikkakkallu''. That did not materialise and later he approached with another dream project ''Perumthachan''. In the end of the afterword, M. T. thanks Ajayan for persuading him to write the screenplay for ''Perumthachan''. He died on 13 December 2018.‘Perumthachan’ director Thopil Ajayan passes away in Kerala
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Early life and career

Ajayan was the eldest son of film director and playwright

Thoppil Bhasi Thoppil Bhaskara Pillai, known as Thoppil Bhasi (8 April 1924 – 8 December 1992) was an Indian Malayalam-language playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He was associated with the communist movement in Kerala and his play ''Ningalenne C ...

. He secured a diploma in film technology from the Adayar film institute. He started as a

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

assistant and later worked as an associate director with Thoppil Bhasi,

Bharathan Bharathan (14 November 1946 – 30 July 1998) was an Indian film maker, artist, and art director. Bharathan is noted for being the founder of a new school of film making in Malayalam cinema, along with Padmarajan and K. G. George, in ...

, and

Padmarajan P. Padmarajan (23 May 1945 – 23 January 1991) was an Indian film maker, screenwriter and author who was known for his works in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. He was the founder of a new school of film making in Malayalam cinema, ...

Filmography

Director

Assistant Director

Chief Associate Director

Associate Director

Awards

National Film Awards #1990:

- ''

Perumthachan Perumthachan (പെരുന്തച്ചന്‍), also spelled as ''"Perunthchan"'' (പെരു - Peru/big, തച്ചന്‍ - thachan/craftsman), meaning ''the master carpenter'' or ''the master craftsman ', is an honorific title ...

Kerala State Film Award The Kerala State Film Awards are the film awards for a motion picture made in Kerala. The awards started in 1969 by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala and since 1998 the awards have been bestowed by Kerala State C ...

#1990:

Kerala State Film Award for Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value The Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value is an award, begun in 1976, presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India to the best film with popular appeal and aesthetic value in Malayalam film industry. Until 1997, the aw ...

- ''Perumthachan'' #1990: Kerala State Film Award for Best Debut Director

References

External links

*
'Cinema of Malayalam' profile
1950 births 2018 deaths Film directors from Kerala Kerala State Film Award winners Malayalam film directors M.G.R. Government Film and Television Training Institute alumni People from Alappuzha district 20th-century Indian film directors Director whose film won the Best Debut Feature Film National Film Award {{India-film-director-stub