Priyadarshan

Priyadarshan
File:Telse1.jpg Priyadarshan
Born	Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala
Occupation(s)	film director, scriptwriter

Priyadarshan Nair (Malayalam: പ്രിയദര്‍ശന്‍, Hindi: प्रियदर्शन) is a popular Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. He has directed numerous commercially successful movies in Malayalam cinema in the 1980s and 1990s. In Bollywood, he is known for making remakes of Malayalam films, which includes Gardish (1993), Hera Pheri (2000), Hulchul (2004), and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007). His trade mark signature is the David Lean-like shots and sequences he puts in most of his films such as Abhimanyu (1991), Thenmavin Kombath (1994), Kala Pani (1996), and Kanchivaram (2008).

Early life and family

Priyadarshan hails from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala where his father Mr. Nair worked a librarian at the University of Kerala. It was here that he got the opportunity to read literary works of famous writers. His fascination for comics and fairy tales reflects in his movies. As a child, Priyadarshan aspired to be a cricketer. However, his hopes of a career in cricket were cut short following an injury to his left eye by a cricket ball. He would later wear dark glasses when appearing in public. Priyadarshan met his wife, Malayalam actress Lizzy (Lakshmi Priyadarshini), on the sets of his second film. They have worked together in twelve movies. He has two children, daughter Kalyani and son Sidharth. Megastar of the Malayalam industry Mohanlal is one of Priyadarshan's closest friends. Priyadarshan was Mohanlal's friend and senior in college in Thiruvananthapuram.

Career

Around the same period many of his friends from Thiruvananthapuram joined the film industry including Megastar Mohanlal, singer M. G. Sreekumar, producer Suresh Kumar are few among them. Priyadarshan is said to have ventured into films by chance. His first movie Poochakkoru Mookkuthi in Malayalam was a block buster. His success is generally attributed to the new outlook, particularly slaptstick comedy which is extensively used in his films. Mohanlal has played the lead character in some of his most successful films. Their best work till date has been considered to be Chithram (Malayalam, 1987). Another movie Kilukkam was one of the biggest hits in the history of Malayalam cinema. In 2003, Priyadarshan remade the film in Hindi, as Hungama, starring Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal etc. The film started a long association between the actor and director, which resulted in a number of now-classic comedies in Malayalam, including Kilukkam, Chithram, Vellanakalude Nadu and Thenmavin Kombath.

Foray into Hindi remakes

Apart from Malayalam films Priyadarshan has also directed Hindi, Tamil and Telugu movies. His foray into Bollywood was with the movie Muskurahat (1993) remake of malayalam film Kilukkam. This was a failure at the box office and it went largely unnoticed. His first successful Hindi film was Gardish, a remake of the malayalam film Kireedam (1989).

He made his second foray into Hindi films with the remake of the acclaimed Kamal Haasan starrer Thevar Magan (Tamil) in Hindi. The film was titled Virasat and was made with the help of writer Vinay Shukla. The success of the film established Priyadarshan as a sought after director in Bollywood along with the cast and crew of the film including Tabu, Ravi K Chandran (cinemotography) and Anu Malik (music).

He later came up with a string of remakes including Hera Pheri (2000) (remake of Ramji Rao Speaking), Hungama (2003) (remake of Poochakkoru Mookkuthi), Hulchul (2004) (remake of Godfather), Garam Masala (2005) (remake of Boeing Boeing), Chup Chup Ke (2006) (remake of Punjabi House),Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) (Remake of Manichitrathazhu)and Billu (2009) ( Remake of Kadha parayumbol)

Allegations of plagiarism

Several critics have pointed out that Priyadarsan relies on plagiarism from other films, particularly critically or commercially successful Hollywood productions. For instance, Thalavattam is heavily based on the Oscar winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Other notable instances include Vandanam (Stakeout), Kakkakuyil (A Fish Called Wanda), Malamaal Weekly (Waking Ned Divine), Garam Masala (Boeing Boeing). His Hindi films are mostly remakes of older Malayalam movies, usually of a different director and screenwriter.

The original directors and screenwriters are either not acknowledged in the Hindi version, or are acknowledged simply under 'Story'. For instances Hulchul was originally written and directed by Siddique-Lal who was not credited as the screenwriter in spite of it being an exact copy (with dialogues translated to Hindi). Soon after the release of Bhool Bhulaiyaa, in an interview with Rediff.com, the original screenwriter Madhu Muttam claimed that he was not consulted with and the original director, Fazil (also Priyadarshan's mentor) refused to comment on the film. When asked about plagiarism accusations, Priyadarshan told The Hindu that "Today, 99% of the films are copied" .

Awards

Priyadarshan has won awards both from the State and Central government for his movies, He won the Kerala State Award for Best Director in 1995. He made a mulitilingual Sirai Chaalai (1996), (Originally made in Tamil) which told the story of freedom fighters in the jail at Andaman and Nicobar islands, which starred Mohanlal, Prabhu Ganesan and Amrish Puri, recieved 4 National Film Awards including awards for Santosh Sivan (cinematography) and Sabu Cyril (art direction).

Ilayaraja's score in the movie was grand and symphonic, and was compared to the best of John Williams, Richard Strauss and Max Steiner.

Selected Filmography

Name	Year of release	Language	Copied from/ Original	Remarks
De Dana Dan	2009	Hindi	Not yet identified
Billu Barber	2009	Hindi	Kuselan (Tamil)
Kanchivaram	2008	Tamil	Not yet identified
Bhool Bhulaiyaa	2007	Hindi	Manichitrathazhu (Mal)
Dhol	2007	Hindi	In Harihar Nagar (Mal.)
Vettom	2004	Malayalam	French Kiss
Hulchul	2004	Hindi	Godfather (Mal.)
Hungama	2003	Hindi	Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (Mal.)
Kilichundan Mampazham	2003	Malayalam	Not yet identified
Kakkakuyil	2001	Malayalam	A Fish called Wanda
Hera Pheri	2000	Hindi	Ramji Rao Speaking (Mal.)
Megham	1999	Malayalam
Chandralekha	1997	Malayalam	While You Were Sleeping(Eng)
Virasat	1997	Hindi	Thevarmakan (Tam.)
Kala Pani	1996	Malayalam	Papylon
Thenmavin Kombath	1994	Malayalam
Gardish	1993	Hindi	Kireedom (Mal.)
Abhimanyu	1991	Malayalam	The Godfather Part II
Advaitham	1991	Malayalam
Kilukkam	1991	Malayalam	Anastacia
Akkare Akkare Akkare	1990	Malayalam		Sequel to Nadodikkattu & Pattanapravesham
Vandanam	1989	Malayalam	Stakeout
Chithram	1988	Malayalam
Aryan	1988	Malayalam
Mukunthetta Sumitra Vilikkunnu	1988	Malayalam	Katha
Vellanakalude Naadu	1988	Malayalam
Cheppu	1987	Malayalam
Hello My Dear Wrong Number	1986	Malayalam	North by Northwest
Ninnishtam Ennishtam	1986	Malayalam	City Lights
Thalavattam	1986	Malayalam	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Aram + Aram = Kinnaram	1985	Malayalam
Boeing Boeing (1985 film)	1985	Malayalam	Boeing Boeing (1965 film)
Poochakkoru Mookkuthi	1984	Malayalam

External links

• Priyadarshan at IMDb
• Inuaguration of his Studio - Four Frames