Ranjith Sankar
Ranjith Sankar is an Indian Filmmaker who works in Malayalam films. He started his movie career with the 2009 thriller film "Passenger". Sankar followed "Passenger" up with "Arjunan Saakshi" (2011),"Molly Aunty Rocks" (2012), "Punyalan Agarbattis" (2013), "Varsham" (2014), "Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam" (2015), "Pretham" (2016), "Ramante Eden Thottam" (2017), "Punyalan Private Limited" (2017), "Njan Marykutty" (2018) "Pretham 2" (2018), "Kamala" (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, India, Ranjith Sankar completed his education from St. Thomas College in  Thrissur and received his master's degree at Mar Athanasius College of Engineering Kothamangalam. Shankar's writing career began with television series such as "Nizhalkal" and "American Dreams". He won the Kerala State Award for Best Screenplay for American Dreams. His big break in films came in 2009 through "Passenger", the scale of which, for Malayalam commercial cinema, was unprecedented. The film won accolades from critics and audience. In 2011, his next film "Arjunan Saakshi", starring Prithviraj, was released. It was inspired by his real-life experiences and received generally positive reviews from critics. In interviews, Sankar has said that  it was Prithviraj who made him launch his production house Dreams N Beyond in 2012. Sankar designed a new business model never tried before in Malayalam cinema with the house. The 10 films he directed after Arjunan Sakshi were produced by himself along with the respective heroes in those films, Prithviraj, Mammootty, Jayasurya and others. "Molly Aunty Rocks" (2012) starring Revathy and Prithviraj was Dreams n Beyond's maiden production, a critical and commercial success His next film was "Punyalan Agarbattis" (2013), a satire featuring Jayasurya, Nyla Usha, Innocent, Rachana Narayanankutty and Aju Varghese. His next movie "Varsham" starring Mammootty , Asha Sarath and Mamta Mohandas was released in November 2014. The film was a huge commercial and critical success with Mammootty winning almost all major awards that year. This was followed by a biographical film "Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam" in November 2015.The film was a hit and it won national and state awards for Jayasurya. Ranjith Sankar's third film with Jayasurya, a horror comedy titled "Pretham" was released in August 2016.The film was Sankar's biggest commercial success since then and was remade in Telugu. Ramante Edanthottam was his next, a best-selling movie on female empowerment. He followed  it up with sequels to Punyalan and Pretham titled Punyalan Private Limited and Pretham2. He launched his distribution company Punyalan Cinemas with Punyalan Private Limited which was another major commercial success. He made Njan Marykutty in 2018 which was the first commercial movie in India with a transgender person as protagonist. Jayasurya played Marykutty which won two Kerala State Awards and had a major run in film festivals. The film was a commercial success as well and looked upon as a pioneer Indian movie on transgender rights. Kamala, his latest movie, an experimental thriller was released in 2019. Best Debut  director Best Debut director (Nomination) Best Director (Nomination) Best Director (Nomination) 2009: First Lohithadas Puraskaram for best screenplay