Shahad Nilambur

Shahad Nilambur was still in Plus One when he made his first short film, Motta. The Malayalam director, from Nilambur in Kerala, took to filmmaking as a teenager and made a string of shorts under the Village Shades banner; one of them, Oppana, was named best film at the 2020 Chetana Fest. He then moved to Kochi to look for work in the industry, at one point holding a hotel job while he chased openings. Several years on other directors' crews followed. He was an assistant director on Adi Kapyare Kootamani (2015), Popcorn (2016) and Crossroad (2017), an associate director on Pretham Undu Sookshikkuka (2017) and Love Action Drama (2019), and chief associate director on Uriyadi (2020). Prakashan Parakkatte (2022) was his feature debut as director, and Anuragam (2023) came next. His third film, Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar (2026), gave Parvathy Thiruvothu her first police role in Malayalam. After its Netflix release, it is now heading to theatres in Tamil Nadu. Shahad has said the story's supposed loopholes are already answered on screen.