Jayaraj


Jayarajan Rajasekharan Nair, professionally credited as Jayaraj, is an Indian filmmaker, who predominantly works in Malayalam film industry. He is the founder of the Birds Club International and is actively involved in philanthropic work. Jayaraj is a recipient of the Crystal Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden Peacock award at the IFFI, the Golden Crow Pheasant award at the IFFK, the FIPRESCI Award from the International Federation of Film Critics, the Don Quijote Award from the International Federation of Film Societies, The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema award and a special mention award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. He is also a 7 time recipient of the National Film Award and several Kerala State Film Awards. His notable films include Paithrukam, Desadanam, Kaliyattam, Karunam, Shantham, Daivanamathil, Vellapokkathil, Ottaal, Veeram, and Bhayanakam.

Early life

Jayaraj was born on 4 August 1960 to a middle-class family in Kottayam, Kerala, India. His father was N. Rajasekharan Nair and mother, Savithri R. Nair. He completed his Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication from College of Engineering Trivandrum . During his stay at Thiruvananthapuram, he attended film festivals including the International Film Festival of Kerala and watched many world classics. Kurosawa's Rashomon and DeSica's Bicycle Thieves were among them, and they influenced him immensely. After his studies in Thiruvananthapuram, he met noted director Bharathan who was a neighbour of his sister in Madras, Tamil Nadu.

Career

Bharathan was impressed by Jayaraj and made him his assistant director for Chilambu. Jayaraj then went on to be the assistant to Bharathan in six more films including the critically acclaimed Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam and Vaishali. Jayaraj debuted as director with Vidyarambham. His early career mainly produced commercially oriented films like Aakasha Kottayile Sultan, Johnnie Walker, High Way, Thumboli Kadappuram and Arabia.
Notable in his early career were Kudumbasametham, Paithrukam and Sopanam. Paithrukam was critically acclaimed but was subject to criticism for its conservative, religious philosophy. Desadanam was a milestone in his career. With the film, he was considered a serious film-maker by the critics. It was followed by another critically acclaimed film, Kaliyattam which was an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. It won him the National Film Award for Best Direction.
In 1999 Jayaraj started his nine-film series project Navarasa with Karunam, followed by Shantham. Shantham won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. The third in the Navarasa series was Bheebhatsa, a Hindi film followed by Adbutham and Veeram. In 2018, the sixth film in the series Bhayanakam was released and had won awards for Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the 2017 National Film Awards. On 10 June 2019, Tovino Thomas officially announced and shared the poster of Roudram 2018, the seventh film in the series. While sharing the poster on Facebook Tovino wrote, "The movie is based on real-life incidents that occurred in central Travancore, during the devastating floods that Kerala survived. Roudram 2018 portrays the tempestuous ferocity of nature, and the utter helplessness of humankind before that might."
Of late he has been doing commercial and art films and is successful in both genres. While Thilakkam and 4 The People were huge commercial successes Kannaki, Makalkku, Daivanamathil and Ottaal were critically acclaimed. Ottaal made history, becoming the first ever Malayalam movie to have swept all the top awards in the 20-year history of the International Film Festival of Kerala. The film was one of four Malayalam films selected to be a part of the Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India in Goa in November 2015.

Personal life

Jayaraj is married to Sabitha Jayaraj, a Kerala State Film Award winning costume designer and actress. They have two children together.

Philanthropy

In an earnest effort towards conserving nature and strengthening people’s welfare, Jayaraj founded the Jayaraj Foundation in 2010 and officially launched it on 6 June 2014. World Organisation of Hope’s ambitious programme 'SMART'and "Birds Club international" are the two projects initiated by the foundation.
Word Organisation of Hope is an organisation aimed at building children’s awareness of their rights and to protect them. The programme SMART is an offshoot of WOH. It supports children and adolescents in their own struggle to secure and defend their dreams.
Birds Club International aims at creating miniature rain forests in schools and colleges, to make a better environment both for birds and humans. It plans to bring together the future generation and integrating more of society towards nature conservation activities. Several units of BCI have been started in many schools and colleges in Kerala, with the help of the Government of Kerala, to achieve this.

Awards

;International awards
FilmYearAward
Ottaal2015Crystal Bear, Suvarna Chakoram, FIPRESCI award, NETPAC award, Rajatha Chakoram
Daivanamathil2005Best Film Award in Spain, Madrid International Film Festival
Karunam2000Golden Peacock Award, International Film Festival of India- Awards from Federation of International Film Societies, Berlin International Film Fest, Special Mention in Kerala International Film Festival.
Shantham2001Best Cinematography in Festival De 3 Continents, France
Desadanam1996Special Mention at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in competition section.

;National Film Awards
;Kerala State Film Awards
;Filmfare Awards South
;V. Shantharam Awards
;John Abraham Awards
;Asianet Film Awards
;Ramu Karyatt Awards
;P. Padmarajan Awards