Jayarajan Rajasekharan Nair, professionally credited as Jayaraj (born 31 May 1960), is an Indian filmmaker, who predominantly works in the
Malayalam film industry.
He has won many awards, including
Crystal Bear at the
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
, the Golden Peacock award at the
IFFI, and the FIPRESCI Award from the
International Federation of Film Critics. He is also a seven-time recipient of the
National Film Award
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 ...
and several
Kerala State Film Awards. His films include ''
Paithrukam'' (1993), ''
Desadanam'' (1996), ''
Kaliyattam'' (1997), ''
4 The People'' (2004), ''
Vellapokkathil'' (2007), ''
Ottaal'' (2015),
Veeram (2016) and ''
Bhayanakam'' (2018).
Early life
During his stay at
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...
, he attended film festivals including the
International Film Festival of Kerala
The International Film Festival of Kerala (abbreviated as IFFK) is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. This film festival started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy ...
and watched many world classics.
Kurosawa's ''
Rashomon'' and
DeSica's ''
Bicycle Thieves'' were among them, and they influenced him immensely.
Career
Bharathan was impressed by Jayaraj and made him his assistant director for ''Chilambu''(1986). Jayaraj then went on to be the assistant to Bharathan in six more films including the critically acclaimed ''
Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam'' (1987) and ''
Vaishali'' (1988). Jayaraj debuted as director with ''Vidyarambham'' (1990). His early career mainly produced commercially oriented films like ''
Aakasha Kottayile Sultan'' (1991), ''Johnnie Walker'' (1992), ''High Way'' (1995), ''Thumboli Kadappuram'' (1995) and ''Arabia'' (1995).
Notable in his early career were ''Kudumbasametham'' (1992), ''
Paithrukam'' (1993) and ''Sopanam'' (1993). ''
Desadanam'' (1997) was followed by ''
Kaliyattam'' (1997) which was an adaptation of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
Othello
''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...
''. It won him the
National Film Award for Best Direction.
In 1999 Jayaraj started his nine-film series project ''Navarasa'' with ''
Karunam'', followed by ''
Shantham'' (2001). ''
Shantham'' won the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film. The third in the ''Navarasa'' series was ''Bheebhatsa'', a
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
film followed by ''Adbutham'' and
''Veeram''. In 2018, the sixth film in the series ''
Bhayanakam'' was released and had won awards for
Best Direction,
Best Adapted Screenplay and
Best Cinematography at the 2017
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 ...
. On 10 June 2019,
Tovino Thomas officially announced and shared the poster of ''Roudram 2018'', the seventh film in the series. While sharing the poster on Facebook Tovino wrote, "The movie is based on real-life incidents that occurred in central Travancore, during the devastating floods that Kerala survived. ''Roudram 2018'' portrays the tempestuous ferocity of nature, and the utter helplessness of humankind before that might."
Of late he has been doing commercial and art films and is successful in both genres. While ''
Thilakkam'' (2003) and ''
4 The People'' (2004) were huge commercial successes ''
Kannaki'' (2002), ''Makalkku'' (2005), ''
Daivanamathil'' (2005) and ''
Ottaal'' (2015) were critically acclaimed. ''
Ottaal'' made history, becoming the first ever Malayalam movie to have swept all the top awards in the 20-year history of the International Film Festival of Kerala. The film was one of four Malayalam films selected to be a part of the Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India in Goa in November 2015.
Philanthropy
In an earnest effort towards conserving nature and strengthening people's welfare, Jayaraj founded the Jayaraj Foundation in 2010 and officially launched it on 6 June 2014. World Organisation of Hope's (WOH) ambitious programme ''SMART'' (Sports, Music, Art and Recreation Therapy (Yoga and Meditation)) and ''Birds Club International'' are the two projects initiated by the foundation.
World Organisation of Hope (WOH) is an organisation aimed at building children's awareness of their rights and to protect them. The programme SMART
ports, Music, Art and Recreation Therapy (Yoga and Meditation)is an offshoot of WOH. It supports children and adolescents in their own struggle to secure and defend their dreams.
Birds Club International (BCI) aims at creating miniature rain forests in schools and colleges, to make a better environment both for birds and humans. It plans to bring together the
future generation and integrating more of society towards nature conservation activities. Several units of BCI have been started in many schools and colleges in Kerala, with the help of the Government of Kerala, to achieve this.
Awards
;International 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 ...
*1996 :
Best Feature Film in Malayalam - ''
Desadanam''
*1997 :
Best Director - ''
Kaliyattam''
*2001 :
Best Film - ''
Shantham''
*2005 :
Best Film on National Integration - ''
Daivanamathil''
*2007 :
Best Non-Feature Film Direction - ''
Vellapokkathil'' (''The Deluge'')
*2014 :
Best Film on Environment Conservation/Preservation - ''
Ottaal''
*2017 : Best Director - ''
Bhayanakam''
*2017 :
Best Adapted Screenplay - ''Bhayanakam''
*2017 : Special Jury mention - Rebirth
;
Kerala State Film Awards
*1992 :
Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film - ''Kudumbasametham''
*1996 :
Kerala State Film Award for Best Director - ''
Deshadanam''
*1997 :
Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value - ''
Kaliyattam''
*1999 :
Kerala State Film Award for Best Film - ''
Karunam''
*2015 :
Kerala State Film Award for Best Film - ''
Ottaal''
;Filmfare Awards South
* 1997 :
Best Director : ''
Kaliyattam''
* 2000 :
Best Director : ''
Karunam''
* 2000 :
Best Film - Malayalam : ''
Karunam''
;V. Shantharam Awards
*1997 : ''
Kaliyattam''
*2001 : ''
Shantham''
;John Abraham Awards
*2000 : ''
Karunam''
*2012 : ''
Vellapokkathil''
;
Asianet Film Awards
* 2002: Asianet Film Award for Best Director for
Kannaki
;Ramu Karyatt Awards
*1996 : ''
Desadanam''
;P. Padmarajan Awards
*1996 : ''
Desadanam''
*2000 : ''
Karunam''
Filmography
References
External links
*
All in the name of GodThe Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
- 5 July 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jayaraj
Malayali people
20th-century Indian people
Malayalam film directors
Kerala State Film Award winners
Tamil film directors
1960 births
Living people
Filmfare Awards South winners
Best Director National Film Award winners
21st-century Indian people
Artists from Kottayam
Film directors from Kottayam district
Telugu film directors
Hindi-language film directors
Film producers from Kerala
Screenwriters from Kerala
Malayalam screenwriters
Best Adapted Screenplay National Film Award winners
Directors who won the Best Feature Film National Film Award
Directors who won the Best Film on Environment Conservation/Preservation National Film Award
Directors who won the Best Film on National Integration National Film Award