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

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

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 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 b ...

award at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

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 Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Narayanan Nair (15 July 1933 – 25 December 2024) was an Indian author, lecturer, Screenwriter, screenplay writer and film director. He was a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and was o ...

wrote that Ajayan first approached him for a

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

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 instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

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

Bharathan Bharathan Parameshwara Menon Palissery (14 November 1946 – 30 July 1998) Known mononymously Bharathan was an Indian people, Indian film maker, artist, and art director. Bharathan is noted for being the founder of a new school of film ma ...

, and

Padmarajan Padmarajan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known as 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 ...

Filmography

Director

Assistant Director

Chief Associate Director

Associate Director

Awards

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

#1990: Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director - '' Perumthachan''

Kerala State Film Award The Kerala State Film Awards are the film awards for a cinema of kerala, motion picture made in Kerala. The awards started in 1969 by the Department of Cultural Affairs (Kerala), Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala and sin ...

#1990: Kerala State Film Award for Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value - ''Perumthachan'' #1990: Kerala State Film Award for Best Debut Director

References

External links

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