Ranjith Sankar is an Indian

Filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

who works in

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema is an Indian cinema, 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, ...

s. He started his movie career with the 2009 thriller film ''

Passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

''. Sankar followed ''Passenger'' up with '' Arjunan Saakshi'' (2011),''

Molly Aunty Rocks ''Molly Aunty Rocks!'' is a 2012 Malayalam film directed by Ranjith Sankar, starring Revathi in the title role along with Prithviraj. It has been released on 14 September 2012 to positive reviews from critics and audience alike. The positive e ...

'' (2012), ''

Punyalan Agarbattis ''Punyalan Agarbattis'' () is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language satirical comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Ranjith Sankar, starring Jayasurya, Nyla Usha, Aju Varghese, Rachana Narayanankutty, Innocent and Sreejith Ravi. The film fo ...

'' (2013), '' Varsham'' (2014), '' Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam'' (2015), ''

Pretham ''Pretham'' () is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language comedy horror drama film, written, co-produced and directed by Ranjith Sankar. Starring Jayasurya, Aju Varghese, Govind Padmasoorya, Sharaf U Dheen, Shruthi Ramachandran, Pearle Maaney, Dharma ...

'' (2016), '' Ramante Eden Thottam'' (2017), ''

Punyalan Private Limited ''Punyalan Private Limited'' is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language political satire film written, co-produced and directed by Ranjith Sankar. It is a sequel to the 2013 film '' Punyalan Agarbattis'' and stars Jayasurya, Aju Varghese, Vijayaraghava ...

'' (2017), ''

Njan Marykutty ''Njan Marykutty'' () is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language drama film written and directed by Ranjith Sankar and co-produced with Jayasurya. The film stars Jayasurya as a trans woman named Marykutty, with Innocent, Jewel Mary, Jins Baskar, Su ...

'' (2018) ''

Pretham 2 ''Pretham 2'' () is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language comedy horror drama film written, co-produced and directed by Ranjith Sankar. It is a sequel to the 2016 film ''Pretham''. Jayasurya returns for the lead role, alongside a new supporting cas ...

'' (2018), ''

Kamala Kamala refers to: People * Kamala (name), given name and surname, includes list of people and characters with the name ** Kamala Harris, the 49th and current Vice President of the United States * Kamala (wrestler) (1950–2020), American profess ...

'' (2019) and '' Sunny'' (2021). Sankar launched his production house Dreams N Beyond in 2012 and his distribution house Punyalan Cinemas in 2017.

Biography

Born in

Thrissur, Kerala Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...

, India, Ranjith Sankar completed his education at St. Thomas College in Thrissur and studied BTech Civil Engineering at

Mar Athanasius College of Engineering Mar Athanasius College of Engineering (MACE) is a government aided engineering college located in Kothamangalam, Kerala state, India. The college is affiliated to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University since its inception in 2015. One ...

Kothamangalam Kothamangalam, , is a municipality in Ernakulam district of Kerala, India. The town is in the foothills of the Western Ghats, and is a part of the Idukki Lok Sabha constituency. The town serves as the headquarters of a taluk and a municipality ...

. Shankar's writing career began with television series such as ''Nizhalkal'' and ''American Dreams''. He won the

Kerala State Award Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Canar ...

for Best Screenplay for American Dreams. In 2009 he made''

''. ''

'' (2012) starring

Revathy Asha Kelunni Nair (born 8 July 1966), better known by her stage name Revathi, is an Indian actress and director, known for her works predominantly in Tamil & Malayalam cinema - in addition to Telugu, Hindi & Kannada films. She has won sever ...

and Prithviraj was Dreams n Beyond's first production, a critical and commercial success His next film was ''

'' (2013), a satire featuring

Jayasurya Jayasurya (born August 1978) is an Indian actor, distributor, Sponsor, Model, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist, who works in the Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a N ...

Nyla Usha Nyla Usha Gopakumar is an Indian actress, television host, and radio jockey from Trivandrum, Kerala. After working for nearly a decade as an RJ at Hit 96.7 in Dubai, she made her acting debut in 2013 with ''Kunjananthante Kada''. Early life ...

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

Rachana Narayanankutty Rachana Narayanankutty is an Indian actress, Kuchipudi dancer, and television presenter who works prominently in Malayalam film and television. She became popular through the television series ''Marimayam'' aired in Mazhavil Manorama. Persona ...

and

Aju Varghese Aju Kurian Varghese (born 11 January 1985) better known as Aju Varghese is an Indian actor and producer who appears in Malayalam cinema. He made his debut in 2010 in ''Malarvadi Arts Club'', directed by his college classmate Vineeth Sreenivas ...

. His next movie '' Varsham'' starring

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (; born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil l ...

Asha Sarath Asha Sharath (born 19 July 1974) is an Indian actress and classical dancer, who predominantly works in Malayalam films and television shows and also has a few Tamil, Kannada and Telugu film credits. Personal life Asha is married to Sharath ...

and

Mamta Mohandas Mamta Mohandas is an Indian actress, film producer and a playback singer of Malayalam film industry, she has also worked in Tamil and Telugu productions. She has acted in more than 50 films and won several accolades including two Filmfare Awar ...

was released in November 2014. The film was a huge commercial and critical success and Mammootty won several awards for his role in it. This was followed by a biographical film '' Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam'' in November 2015. Ranjith Sankar's third film with Jayasurya, a horror comedy titled "

" was released in August 2016. It has been remade in

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 ...

. Ramante Edanthottam was his next, a best-selling movie on female empowerment. He followed it up with sequels to Punyalan and Pretham titled

and Pretham2. He launched his distribution company Punyalan Cinemas with Punyalan Private Limited which was another major commercial success. He made

in 2018 which was the first commercial movie in India with a

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

person as protagonist. Jayasurya played Marykutty which won two Kerala State Awards and had a major run in film festivals. The experimental thriller ''

'' was released in 2019.

Filmography

Awards

; Kerala State Awards * Best

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

(Television) for the 2003 serial ''American Dreams'' ; Dubai AMMA Awards * Best Socially Committed movie Director - ''

'' * Best Debut director - ''

'' ;

Asianet Film Awards The Asianet Film Awards is an award ceremony for films presented annually by Asianet, a Malayalam-language television network from the south-Indian state of Kerala. Asianet says that awards ceremony has been instituted to honour both artis ...

* Best screenplay - ''

'' * Popular film - ''

'' ; Kerala Film Critics Awards * Special Jury Award for direction - ''

'' ; World Malayali Council - Kairali Awards * Best Screenplay - ''

'' ; Surya TV Awards Best Debut director ; V Santharam Awards Best Debut director (Nomination) ; Filmfare Awards Best Director (Nomination) ; SouthScope Awards Best Director (Nomination) ; Other awards 2009: First Lohithadas Puraskaram for best screenplay

References

External links

Official blog
*http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/malayalam/article/67808.html *http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/south-review-arjunan-saakshi/20110131.htm

*https://web.archive.org/web/20101225020705/http://www.metromatinee.com/artist/Ranjith%20Shankar-1953 *http://www.expressbuzz.com/entertainment/Entertainstory.aspx?Title=Ranjiths+%E2%80%98Arjunan..%E2%80%99+will+be+an+action+thriller&artid=pjS1h1lMAZY=&SectionID=TPEu9LXF3Wk=&MainSectionID=TPEu9LXF3Wk=&SectionName=T0d/vXfniiY=&SEO= *http://varnachitram.com/2009/10/12/interview-with-ranjith-sankar-part-2/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Sankar, Ranjith 21st-century Indian film directors Living people Film directors from Thrissur Malayalam film directors Malayalam screenwriters People from Thrissur Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from Thrissur 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Screenwriters from Kerala 21st-century Indian screenwriters