Jeethu Joseph (born 10 November 1972) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in

Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ''Elippathayam' ...

. He has also worked in a few

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

films. Jeethu made his directional debut with the 2007

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

, ''

Detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

''. He is best known for the crime thrillers, ''

Drishyam ''Drishyam'' () is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. It stars Mohanlal and Meena, with Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Asha Sharath, Siddique, Roshan Basheer and N ...

'' and ''

Drishyam 2 ''Drishyam 2: The Resumption'', or simply ''Drishyam 2'' is a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph and produced by Antony Perumbavoor through the company Aashirvad Cinemas.A sequel to thei ...

''. ''Drishyam'' became the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever, at its time of release. It was the first Malayalam film to cross the 50 crore mark, at the box office. ''

'' was released directly through

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

, due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic. Like the prequel, it was highly acclaimed and appreciated, worldwide. His other works include ''

Mummy & Me ''Mummy & Me'' is a 2010 Malayalam Physiological thriller written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. Mummy ''& Me'' stars Archana Kavi, Mukesh, Urvashi and Kunchacko Boban in the main lead and the remaining cast include Lalu Alex, Shari, Jan ...

'' (2010), ''

My Boss ''My Boss'' is a 2012 Indian Malayalam-language romantic comedy drama film directed by Jeethu Joseph, starring Dileep and Mamta Mohandas in the lead roles and Mukesh in a cameo appearance. It is the third film by Jeethu Joseph. The film is produc ...

'' (2012), ''

Life of Josutty ''Life of Josutty'' is a 2015 Malayalam-language family drama film directed by Jeethu Joseph. The film stars Dileep in the title role along with a supporting cast consisting of Jyothi Krishna, Rachana Narayanankutty, Renjini Rupesh, Hareesh Pe ...

'' (2015), ''

Memories Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

'' (2013), '' Oozham'' (2016), ''

Aadhi ''Aadhi'' is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. The film stars Pranav Mohanlal in the title role (in his debut adult role) and features Jagapathi Babu, Siddique, Lena, Aditi Ravi, Anus ...

'' (2018). Jeethu made his

debut with ''

Papanasam Papanasam is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Kumbakonam. The name literally translates to "Destruction of Sins" in the Tamil language. It is the suburban region ...

'' (2015) which is a remake of his 2014 film ''

'',

debut with '' The Body'' (2019), and

debut with ''

Drushyam 2 ''Drushyam 2'' () is an Indian Telugu language, Telugu-language crime thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. It is a remake of his 2021 Malayalam-language film ''Drishyam 2'' and a sequel to ''Drushyam'' (2014). The film was joint ...

'' (2021).

Early life

Jeethu was born in a Syro-Malabar Catholic family in Mutholapuram, Muvattupuzha taluk to Leelamma and V. Joseph, ex-MLA of Muvattupuzha. Jeethu wanted to attend the

Film and Television Institute of India The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is a film institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India and aided by the Central Government of India. It is situated on the premises of the erstwhile ...

(FTII) although his father wanted him to become an engineer. He attended Fathima Matha English Medium School and later graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from

Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha Nirmala College is a first grade arts and science college in Muvattupuzha, Kerala, India run by the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The college admits undergraduates and post-graduates and offers degrees in the liberal arts, sciences and com ...

Career

Early works

Jeethu Joseph started as an assistant director to

Jayaraj Jayarajan Rajasekharan Nair, professionally credited as Jayaraj, is an Indian filmmaker, who predominantly works in Malayalam film industry. He has won many awards, including Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden ...

in the film ''Bheebhathsam''. After that, he got a chance to direct a film starring

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, inc ...

but it did not materialize and he was back where he started. Meanwhile, Jeethu developed the one-line plot of ''Detective.'' But after failing to find any producers, his mother Leelamma Joseph offered to co-produce the film, which became his debut directorial. A month into the project, a producer evinced interest and took on the production. ''

'' was released in 2007. The film fared well at the box-office. His next film ''

'' was a success at the box-office. ''Mummy and Me'', although it took close to three years in the making, marked a turning point in his career as director. "My first film was easy compared to the struggle I had to go through for my second, ''Mummy and Me''." There were offers to make films like ''Detective'', but Jeethu declined. "I wanted to do a different film" It was for this reason that, though he had one line scripts of ''Mummy and Me'' and ''Memories'' ready in 2008, he chose to make ''Mummy and Me''. His third film ''

'' was also a success in theatres. Jeethu's fourth movie ''

'', a suspense thriller, was released in 2013 which did well in box office.

Post ''Drishyam''

Towards the end of 2013, the drama-thriller ''

'' starring

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

was released, which was well received critically and commercially. It was the highest-grossing Malayalam film, until 2016, and the first Malayalam film to cross 50 crore mark at the box office. ''Drishyam'' was remade in Tamil by Jeethu with

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

enacting Mohanlal's role. It was also remade to Telugu, Kannada and Hindi by other directors. Jeethu then directed Dileep-starrer ''

''.

Personal life

Jeethu married Linta and they have two children. Linta is a

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...

in Malayalam cinema.

Filmography

* ''All films are in Malayalam, otherwise noted the language''

Awards

* 2013 – 44th Kerala State Film Awards - Best Popular Film - ''

'' * 2013 –

Vanitha Film Awards The Vanitha Film Awards are presented annually by ''Vanitha'', an Indian magazine from the ''Malayala Manorama'' group in the south Indian state of Kerala. The awards ceremony has been instituted to honour both artistic and technical excellence i ...

– Best Director – ''

'' * 2013 –

Kerala Film Critics Association Awards The Kerala Film Critics Association Awards are presented annually by the Kerala Film Critics Association to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Malayalam language film industry of India. The awards were instit ...

– Best Director – ''

'' * 2013 – Jaihind TV Film Awards – Best Director – ''

'' * 2013 -

South Indian International Movie Awards South Indian International Movie Awards, also known as the SIIMA Awards, rewards the artistic and technical achievements of the South Indian film industry. It was launched in 2012 by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Brinda Prasad Adusimilli to appreci ...

- Best Director -

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeethu Joseph Malayalam film directors Malayali people Living people Malayalam screenwriters 1972 births Kannada screenwriters People from Muvattupuzha Tamil screenwriters Telugu screenwriters Film directors from Kochi 21st-century Indian film directors 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Screenwriters from Kochi 21st-century Indian screenwriters Telugu film directors