Malayalam Awards Film Critics Awards 2016 - Cast & Crew

Nayantara also called as Nayanthara Kurian, is a renowned Indian actress from Kerala. She was born on 18th November in the year 1984 in Bangalore that is situated in Indian province Karnataka. Her actual name is ‘Diana Mariam Kurian’ the daughter of ‘Omana Kurian’ and ‘Kurian Kodiyatto’. Due to her father’s service, she stayed in several places of India. She joined in “Mar Thoma College” for attending her B.A in English Literature. Besides study she also initiated her modeling career.

Alka Ajith is a Malayalam Indian playback singer. She won the second season of the Airtel Super Singer Junior competition at the age of 14. The show is a Tamil musical competition cum reality show. Ajith was born in Madhya Pradesh. Her father’s name is Ajith Kumar. Her mother’s name is K. Sajitha. Alka’s father is an organist and a musician. He runs his orchestra named Sangeeth Sagar.

Baby Akshara also known as Akshara Kishore, is a Malayalam child artist. She is best known for her character of Bala Chandrika in the serial "Karuthamuthu" which is aired on Asianet. Her cute looks and innocence on the screen have made her a favorite of the audience. She was born in Kannur district, Kerala. Later they moved to Vennala, Ernakulam. Her father Kishore, Kumar works as an architect for Palarivettam firm and her mother Hemaprabha works for Federal Bank in Palarivattam. She has an elder sister named Akhila Kishore, who has also appeared in many television commercial advertisements. Both the sisters are very excellent singers and are taking training in singing for the past two years. Akshara is currently in the second grade at Bhavans Adarsh Vidhyalaya. She started her career by making appearances in Malayalam commercial advertisements. She has been a part of more than seventy advertisements. These ads include Nirapara, Jayalekshmi, Kalyan Silks, Ahliya, Poppy Umbrellas, and much more.

Baby Esther, is an actress in Indian cinema who had shot to fame with her child role and even as promising youngster star too. 

Esther Anil got her first break in Ali John’s 2010 Malayalam Film ‘Nallavan’, where she played the role of childhood of Mythili. Later, she became popular with 2013 success movie Drishyam, where she acted the role of daughter of Mohanlal and Meena. 

With immense talent, she is going to make her place in the industry. Many of us have watched her in suspense thriller Cocktail wherein she played the title role of Susan, the ins-screen daughter of of Anoop Menon and Samrutha Sunil. She also acted as a child star in a film ‘Orunal Varum’ alongside Mohanlal and Sameera Reddy. She then made her presence felt in another movie where audiences have seen her playing the little girl enacting the childhood of Urvashi in a film titled Sakudumbam Shyamala. She got floods of offer as a child artiste now. In the same year (2013), she got a chance to act with the megastar Mammootty in a movie titled, ‘Kunjandente Kada’. For the Telugu version of ‘Drushyam’, she acted as daughter of Venkatesh and Meena (2014) and for Tamil version, she acted as a daughter of Kamal Haasan and Gautami, which was titled as ‘Papanasam’(2015). 

The promising child artiste has acted nearly 20 films to her credit, which is indeed a milestone in her career, which might give her recognition to go ahead with heroine roles later on. 

She is the daughter of Anil Abraham and Manju Anil, She has two brothers who are studying now in school. She never thought that she would be in cinema, but now feels proud to be around many veteran stars like Mammootty, Mohanlal, Dileep, Anoop and others. Well, she is a bright shinning star now in Mollywood.

Lakshmi Gopalaswamy is a South Indian actress and a classical dancer, qualified in Bharatanatyam. She was born on November 7 1970 in Bangalore, to Dr.Uma Gopalaswamy and M.K Gopalaswamy. She did Master’s Degree in Women’s studies. Her Mother Dr.Uma Gopalaswamy is a Scholar of music who lead Lakshmi to train and take Bharatanatyam as career. Lakshmi received the eminent Kerala State Film Award for the second best actress for her roles in 'Thaniye' in 2007, directed by Babu Thiruvalla. She even appeared in P. T. Kunju Mohammed direction movie 'Paradesi'. She was cast as a dancer possessed by an evil spirit in a dream role in 'Aptharakshaka' directed by P. Vasu, opposite Super Star Dr.Vishnuvardhan, an Indian superstar of more than 200 films in five different languages.  For her magnificent performance in ‘Aptharakshaka’, she has been praised by film goers and critics in the film industry.

She has acted in several Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil films. Lakshmi’s debut was against Malayalam superstar Mammootty in Malayalam film Arayannangalude Veedu, which also won her the best supporting actress award. Her next film 'Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal' also brought in much applauds for her acting abilities. Her success in Malayalam also got her offers from the Kannada film industry. Lakshmi Gopalaswamy like doing films that incorporate semi classical dance tracks in her movies. She has been performing since the age of twelve.

She was awarded the prestigious Madras Music Academy’s MGR award for Best Young Dancer. She has been presenting her dance performances on different stages worldwide.

Siddique is an Indian film screenwriter/director and mainly works in Malayalam cinema. He made his acting debut as an assistant director to Fazil. The duo of Siddique & Lal grabbed the attention of Fazil when he saw them performing in the Cochin Kalabhavan troupe.

Priyadarshan Soman Nair is a famous Director, Producer and screen writer. He is awarded the Padma Shri Award by the government in 2012. He has worked for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi cinema in his career since 1984. Although he began his career from Malayalam movies, he is recognized for his comedy films in Bollywood. He is an extremely versatile director and has films in almost every genre. Priyadarshan was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He graduated from University College in his home town with a M.A in Philosophy.

Sujith Vaassudev is an Indian cinematographer and film director who works in Malayalam cinema. Sujith made his debut with Chekavar a 2010 Malayalam film. His best works include Drishyam, 7th Day, Memories, Ayaal, Anarkali. Sujith Vaassudev had won the 2013 Kerala State Film Award for Best Cinematography for the films Ayaal and Memories. In 2016 he debuted as a director through the film James & Alice starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Vedhika.

Madhu Balakrishnan is an Indian playback singer. He sings in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Tulu languages. Madhu Balakrishnan was born on 24th June, in the year 1974. The singer does playback singing for south Indian films. Balakrishnan began his singing career in the year 1999 and since then, sung in several films. He has also been a judge on Malayalam singing reality shows. Apart from doing playback singing, Madhu Balakrishnan has also released a few solo albums.

Stephen Devassy is a music artist who started from the city of Palakkad in Kerala. He began his professional career when he was so young and has performed in front of an audience around the globe. He additionally holds the record for being the most astounding Asian scorer in Piano exams from the Trinity College of Music. He was born on 23 February 1981 to P.K.Devassy and Susy. He has a senior sibling, Sam Devassy, and a sister whose name is Biju Solomon.

Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma is an eminent film lyricist who works predominantly in Malayalam movies. He is noted for his works in films like `Mizhirandillum,'Harbour', 'Achamakuttiyude Achayan', `Jaloltsavam', `Bunglavil Outha', and `Chanthupottu’. He got a chance in films for director Ranjit to whom he remains immensely indebted in his career. It was Ranjit who had given him a chance to work with music composer Raveendran in `Mizhirandillum’. 

M Jayachandran is an Indian musician, music composer, and singer; he works in Malayalam Film Industry. Jayachandran was born on 5th April 1971 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His parents are Madhusudhanan Nair and Sukumari Amma. He took his Electrical Engineering degree from TKM College of Engineering. On 12th November 1995, he got married to Priya. At the age of 5, he started his training in the Carnatic music from Attingal Harihara Iyer and then under Perumbavoor G Raveendranath.

A firebrand script-writer, actor, director, and producer, that’s Renji Panicker for you. He made his debut with movie ‘Bhattacharya IPS’ in 2005. He started his career as a journalist after getting his post graduate degree in it. He, with Shaji Kailas, has given gem of movies to the Malayalam industry. He is also the managing director of the Malayalam newspaper Metrovarthaa. He was born on 21 January 1958 to Keshava Panicker and Laalamani at Nedumudi, Alleppey.

Samuthirakani has carved a niche for himself in the Tamil cine industry not only as a director but also as an actor. He has tried his luck in screenwriting and voice-over too. One of his earlier films, Nadodigal, was a huge hit at the box office. It was released in the year 2009. Later, this movie was remade in three different languages. Samuthirakani has acted in numerous movies and is best known for his performance in the movies like ‘Sattai’, ‘Easan’, ‘Visaranai’, and ‘Subramaniapuram’.

Mohan Lal is the Super Star of the Malayalam film industry. He is the Son in Law of a famous producer cum veteran actor Balaji. Mohan Lal is married to Suchithra, the elder daughter of Balaji. Mohan Lal was born in the year 1960 in Elanthoor in Kerala. He is very popular for his natural acting and simplicity. The first movie, he committed was Thiranottam, but the first to release was Manjil Virinja Pookal. This movie had Poornima Jayaram as his pair and that is the debut movie in Malayalam for her too. Rajavinte Makan was the movie that made him to reach super heights. Mohan Lal is not choosey in particular character; but he acts in all types of film that give him a good performance scope.

Vineeth Srinivasan is known to the music industry for his popular and hit song, Karale, karalinte. Being the son of film star Sreenivasan, he never had even thought of singing as a career. But of course, he likes popular Hindi songs and admires voice of K.J. Jesudas, Brad Paisley, and Udit Narayan.

Nivin Pauly is predominantly a Malayalam actor. Born on 11 October 1984, his debut film was Malarvaadi Art Club. The direction of this film was by Vineeth Sreenivasan and production by Dileep. Some of the other films of Nivin Pauly include Bangalore Days, Thattathin Marayathu, Premam, Oru Vadakkari Selfie etc..The films 1983 and Bangalore Days fetched him the Best Actor Award from Kerala State Film Award. Nivin holds a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering. He is happily wedded to Rinna Joy since 2010, and they are blessed with a boy. Before taking up acting as his profession Nivin was working in Infosys for two years.

Nivin’s selection for the Malarvaadi Arts Club was not that easy. He was not one among the shortlisted actors for the audition, but when one person eventually left, Nivin was provided with a chance. Later he became an actor. From then on, Nivin worked in the movies Sevenes and Metro and some short roles in Spanish Masala and Traffic. He also worked in the music video Nenjodu Cherthu. This was a great hit in YouTube. It was the 2012 flick Thattathin Marayathu which was a turning point in Nivin’s career. It was a great hit and he was labeled the present youth sensation. Directors like Sathyan Anthikad, Aashiq Abu, Rajesh Pillai and Shyamaprasad directed Nivin. Neram was the debut film of Nivin in Tamil. Later he acted in some Malayalam films, including Bangalore Days.

The beard is a regular in some of Nivin’s films. Nivin has worked with his colleague Dileep in several Malayalam films. Nivin confesses that he was good at knowing dialogues of films by heart and telling them just like the original. Before taking up acting Nivin had no stage experience and he knew only to dance. Nivin focuses on giving his best to his films.

The Pauly Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)