Malayalam Awards Kerala State Film Award 2017 - Cast & Crew

Surabhi Lakshmi hails from the town of Narikunni in Kozhikode, Kerala. Having passed her BA in Bharathanatyam, with a first rank from the Kaladii Sree Sankaracharya College; she has also completed her MA in Theatre Arts, with a passion for the theatre. She was part of Suvarna Theatre’s award winning play “Yakshikathakalum Naattuvarthamanangalum” which won her the Kerala Sahitya Nataka Academy’s Best Actress Award.

Surabhi caught the attention of the mainstream movie directors after her win in the reality show “Best Actor” in Amritha TV in 2008. Following this, she has performed in several films including the following: Thirakkatha, Gulmohar, Katha Thudarunnu, Pakal Nakshatrangal, Kancheepurathe Kalyanam, Housefull, Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal, Njanum Ente Familiyum, among others.

She currently plays a major character in the hit TV serial M80 Moosa on the Media One channel.

Surabhi has professed to loving theatre more than her blink-and-miss roles in the main stream cinema. Although her first love is theatre, she is currently gaining significant popularity for her performances in the Mazhavil Manorama channel soap, Kadhayile Rajakumari by K. K. Rajeev.

While the actress has portrayed serious roles and characters, her sense of humour is excellent, being able to handle jests from her colleagues about her small town upbringing.  She recalls with fondness and excitement, her journey from Nirakunni, to receiving the Kerala Sangeet Natak Academy award, to the reality show and finally the silver and large screen, and talks fondly of her family, wistfully wishing “Unfortunately, my father isn’t alive to see it all.”

Stephy Zaviour is one of the top Malayalam film industry costume designers. She was born and brought up in Wayanad, Kerala, India. Wayanad is a small district in Kerala so she was not much familiar with cinema but she was fascinated by the film industry and costumes. She went to Bangalore for her Higher education and there she met some industrial experts.

Chithra is a worldwide known Indian soulful singer. Her original name is Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra. Born in July 1963, Chithra has grown into a versatile singer who can sing all variants. Though she is a born Malayali, she sang in more than 13 languages so far, and the number is still going on. She is fondly known as Chinna Kuyil and Keralathinte Vanambadi, which translates into English as Little Nightingale and Nightingale of Kerala. This is due to her exceptionally melodious singing which has never known any boundaries. She made the excellent contribution to the Music industry in languages like Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Odia, Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Badaga, Tulu, Punjabi, and Urdu. She has a record of being able to record more than 25,000 songs and the number is still increasing. In addition to these recorded songs, she also participated in countless concerts.

Born on 23 September 1975, Vidhu Vincent was born in Kollam, Kerala. She is a Malayalam film director, writer journalist, and activist. Starting her career as a journalist with AsiaNet, she branched into several other professions. Her interest in documentaries and filmmaking led her to work with the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology. She took a break in her professional life to pursue 2 Masters’s degrees – Masters of Social Work and Master of Arts (Philosophy).

Born into a family in Kerala, Adoor Gopalakrishnan started doing amateur plays at a young age. Later, he wrote and helmed few plays. His interest in this field was imbibed in him by his family. He had studied Economics, Political Science and Public Administration at Gandhigram Rural University in 1961. Then he studied screenwriting and filmmaking at the Pune Film Institute. His debut film was Swayamvaram, which became a milestone in the history of the Malayalam cinema. The film won four National Awards including Best Script, Best Film, Best Actress and Best Director. His third film Elippathayam fetched him the British Film Institute Award for Most Original and Imaginative Film in 1982. The International Film Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) was offered to him six times with great honour. For his work in Indian Cinema, he was honoured with India’s 4th highest civilian award Padma Shri. He also has a collection of beautifully written essays, which have also won him awards and accolades.

Girish Gangadharan is a famous Indian Cinematographer who has worked predominantly in Malayalam cinema. He was born on March 8, 1985, in Chadaya mangalam, Kollam, India. He did a diploma course in cinematography in Government Film and Television Institute in Bengalore. He always wanted to be a part of the Bollywood industry and has a passion for photography. So, he started his career in cinematography by working under Sameer Thahir’s assistance.

Pramod Thomas is a renowned Malayali sound engineer from South India. As a teenager, he had a deep fascination for music and musicians. Initially, he wanted to become a singer, but it didn't work out. Thus, Pramod decided to enhance the works of the musicians. He has worked in numerous film industries, including Malayalam, Bollywood and so on.

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.

Sooraj Santhosh is a multilingual versatile playback singer who has made a noteworthy contribution in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Badaga music. The singer is well known in the Bollywood and Tollywood as well. He was born on 19th September 1987 at the Kollam village in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He is well known for his polyglot and fluent knowledge about various types of music and has achieved overwhelming success in the same. Sooraj's father, Santhosh Kumar worked in forest department and his mother, Jayakumari is a high school teacher. He has a younger brother who presently works at IBM as an engineer.

T Sivakumar is an indian actor and a visual artist who has played a vast range of roles, both leading and supporting, in the tamil cinema. His first appearance was in the movie kakkum karangal in 1965. Syam pushkaran is a scriptwriter well known for his work in malayalam cinema. He began his journey in the industry with salt n pepper co-written with dileesh nair.

Salim Kumar is a person who deserves the title of a film legend. He was born on 1969 in Kerala to parents Gangadharan and Kausalya. He has worked in nearly two hundred and fifty films, mostly in Malayalam and is a very popular public figure in Kerala. He did his higher education in BA from Maharajas College in Ernakulam, which has a reputation for nurturing budding artists. During his course at Maharajas, he had won the University title for mimicry three years in a row.

Chethan Jayalal is an Indian movie actor, popular amongst the audience for his work in movies like Iyobinte Pusthakam (2014), Oppam (2016), and Guppy (2016). Mostly known for his predominant involvement in Mollywood movies, TV shows and dramas, he has often been praised for his on-screen timing and sense of humor. In 2018, Chethan made his first notable contribution on the silver screen with the film Bachelor Party (2012), directed by Amal Neerad, starring Asif Ali, Nithya Menen, John Vijay, and Kalabhavan Mani.

Vinayakan is an Indian actor from Malayalam industry. He has also acted in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. In the 1990s he made a name for himself as a dancer. He had a troupe named ‘Black Mercury’. He is well known for ‘Fire Dance’. He and his troupe performed on several stages in Kerala. Once a Malayalam film director Thampi Kannanthanam saw him performing on stage and gave him a chance in his movies.

Aashiq Abu known for his work in Malayalam Cinema, is an Indian producer and Film Director. He was born to C. M. Abu and Jameela Abu on 12 April, 1978 in Edappally, Kerala, and completed his high school and graduation from SRV High School, Kochi and Maharajas College respectively.

Dileesh Pothan is a prominent Malayalam film actor-turned-director. He was born as Dileesh Philip on February 19, 1981, in Manjoor, District of Kottayam in Kerala, India. He studied at Emmanuel’s High School in Kothanalloor and later pursued a pre-degree at KE College in Mannanam. Later, he took Bachelor of Science at St. Philomena’s College in Mysore. He showed deep interest in cinema and drama, and so he decided to take a Master of Arts (MA) in Theatre Arts and attended the Sree Sankaracharya University of Kerala and a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Theatre Arts at the MG University in Kottayam. Initially, he has worked as an actor and associate director in several films including director Aashiq Babu’s Salt N’ Pepper (2011), 22 Female Kottayam (2012), Da Thadiya (2012), 5 Sundarikal (2013), Idukki Gold (2013), and Gangster (2014). Dileesh is also the associate director of Dileesh Nair’s Malayalam satirical comedy film,