Don Max is an Indian film director and editor who works mainly in

Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam, Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both th ...

along with

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

language films. He is considered one of the leading contemporary film editors in the Malayalam film industry, and has introduced several new editing techniques into the regional films.

Early life

Don Max was born on 16 November 1980 in

Mundakayam Mundakayam, is a town in Kanjirappally Taluk in the Kottayam District of Kerala. It is the doorway to the high ranges of southern Kerala, and is at the border of Kottayam and Idukki districts. The next nearest town, Kanjirappally, is & Erumely ...

, Kottayam District, Kerala, as the eldest child of K. L. Varghese, a former bank manager at SBT, and T. V. Chinamma, who was a teacher in Malayalam at St. Thomas High School in Anikkad. He was born on the same day the Malayalam action star

Jayan Krishnan Madhavan Nair (25 July 1939 – 16 November 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan, born as the son of Madhavan Pillai (Kerala title), Pillai and Bharathiyamma in Kollam district, Kollam, was an Indian actor, Officer (armed forc ...

died. After spending his first seven years in the Idukki district, his family shifted to

Pallickathode Pallickathodu, also spelled ''Pallikkathodu'' which includes Anickadu village, is a town in eastern Kottayam district, Kerala, India. It falls under the Kanjirappally assembly constituency. Economy Pallickathodu has a predominantly agricultural ...

, Anickad. He grew up in the town and studied at St. Thomas, Anickad. He later studied his pre-degree education at St. Dominic College in Kanjirapilly, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Thomas College, Palai. He later did a Diploma in Multimedia and Animation at Arena Animations,

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and specialized in Compositing and Animation.

Career

Beginning his career as an editor for ad films and television channels, Don initially focussed on animation, before realising that he would have a more fulfilling career as an editor the possibilities in editing. He joined

Ketan Mehta Ketan Mehta (born 21 July 1952) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who has also directed documentaries and television serials since 1975. Early life and education Born on 21 July 1952 in Navsari in Gujarat, Mehta did his sch ...

’s Institute and then worked in the Prime Time channel in Dubai, before beginning working as an editor for the Malayalam channel, Kairali. Don subsequently did trailers for more than fifty films, before debuting as a senior editor through

Shaji Kailas Shaji Kailas (born 8 February 1965) is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his works in Malayalam cinema. Shaji got a breakthrough with the comedy film '' Dr. Pasupathy'' (1990). He is best known for his action films with main ...

’s ''The Tiger'' (2005). Don experimented with doing editing at the location, becoming one of the first Malayalam editors to do so, while he also did editing for V. K. Prakash’s ''

Moonnamathoral ''Moonnamathoral'' () is a 2006 Indian Malayalam-language supernatural horror mystery thriller film directed by V. K. Prakash and written by Rajesh Jayaraman. It stars Jayaram, Vineeth, Samvrutha Sunil, Sherin Shringar, and Jyothirmayi. ...

'' (2006), the first digital cinema in Malayalam. He simultaneously worked on Tamil film projects and worked on big budget films such as ''

Aadhavan ''Aadhavan'' () is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by K. S. Ravikumar, from a story written by Ramesh Khanna, and produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin under Red Giant Movies. The film stars Suriya, alongside Nayantara, Vadivelu, Mu ...

'' (2009), ''

Sura A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' ( al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while the ...

'' (2010) and '' Ponnar Shankar'' (2011). Don also worked on ''

Jilla ''Jilla'' () is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by R. T. Neason and produced by R. B. Choudary under Super Good Films. The film stars Mohanlal and Vijay as a crime boss and his adopted son, a police officer, whose ...

'' (2014). In late 2014, he began his first directorial venture with actor

Anoop Menon Anoop Menon (born 3 August 1976) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and lyricist. He worked in television before acting in Malayalam films and has acted in more than 75 films. Menon won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Supporting ...

in the lead role, and released his debut movie ''

10 Kalpanakal ''10 Kalpanakal'' ( ''Ten Commandments'') is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film directed by Don Max. It is written by Shins K. Jose and Sangeeth Jain, and based on a story by Max. It stars Anoop Menon and Prashant Narayanan in ...

'' in 25 November 2016.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Max, Don Living people People from Kottayam district Malayalam film editors Tamil film editors Telugu film editors Film editors from Kerala 1980 births