Mammootty

Born Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail in Chandiroor in 1951, Mammootty grew up in Chempu, a village near Vaikom in Kottayam district. He first faced the camera in 1971 as a junior artiste in Anubhavangal Paalichakal, and his first credited part came in M. T. Vasudevan Nair's Vilkkanundu Swapnangal (1980). Across more than five decades he has acted in upwards of 400 films, in Malayalam and also in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and English. Off screen he chairs Malayalam Communications, which runs Kairali TV, and owns the banners Playhouse and Mammootty Kampany. I. V. Sasi's Thrishna (1981) moved him into lead roles. A run of hits in 1984 and 1985, Athirathram, Nirakkoottu and Yathra among them, made him a bankable star. Beyond Malayalam, audiences remember him for Thalapathi (1991), Swathi Kiranam (1992) and Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000). Four times he has won the National Film Award for Best Actor: for Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha with Mathilukal, for Ponthan Mada with Vidheyan, for Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, and for Bramayugam. He also holds eleven Kerala State Film Awards, the Padma Shri (1998) and the Padma Bhushan (2026). In Kaathal – The Core (2023) he played retired bank manager Mathew Devassy, and he turned up as himself in a cameo in Rekhachithram (2025). Still to come are the Tamil film OM – Chapter 1: Udhiram – The Blood Wood, with him as Burma Karthikeyan, Padayaatra, where he plays Dr Devadas, and Mela.