Manjilas Joseph

Manjilas Joseph, whose full name is Manjilas Ouseph Joseph, was a veteran producer of the Malayalam film industry. He was born in Thrissur in the year of 1929. His father managed the Jose Theatre, the first theatre of Kerala. Manjilas was the student of St. Thomas College, Thrissur.

Later,he started working at the Shenoy Theatres, and so Manjilas had to attend Sacred Heart College, Ernakulam. After he graduated, his father advised him to assist T. E. Vasudevan, who was the producer and the distributor of Associated Pictures.

He heeded his father's advice and took up the job of aiding T. E. Vasudevan at the monthly salary of just one hundred and fifty rupees. Manjilas was a good student and learned all the necessary skills quickly. Later, T. E. Vasudevan established his company named Jaya Maruthi Pictures and Joseph followed him there.

In 1951, Joseph shifted to Chennai to head the regional business of Associated Pictures. While working for Associated Pictures, he had managed to forge relations with the people in the industry. After sixteen years, Manjilas decided to work solo.

The first film that he produced was in collaboration with P. Balthazar and NV Joseph named Naadan Pennu. The film received a thumbs ups from the critics as well as the audience. He then went on to finance movies like Thokkukal Kadha Parayunnu, Njaan Njaan Maatharam, Anubhavangal Paalichakal, and much more.

In his lifetime, he has backed twenty-five motion pictures. Manjilas would try to complete the projects on less budget without compromising on the quality. In spite of being just a producer, Manjilas would give his inputs to the scriptwriter as well.

He would search extensively on a topic and after careful deliberation would choose appropriate actors and marketing strategy. Apart from his business acumen, he has established an organization to financially aid the needy as well as underprivileged film artistes named Malayalam Chalachitra Parishad. Manjilas is the vice-president of Asan Memorial Group of institutions.

Vayalar Ravi, Vasudevan Nair, Sathyan, we're some of his friends from the industry. He got married to Kunjamma Joseph at the age of twenty-four. The couple has five children named Ruby, Mathew, Jossy, Bina, and Anu.

All of them are successful professionals and settled in different cities of India. Manjilas is the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award. The government of Kerala has also recognized his contribution on several occasions. On January 8, 2016, he passed away at his residence. His unfortunate death occurred just a few days before his eighty-seventh birthday.