Deepu Karunakaran


Deepu Karunakaran is an Indian film director, writer, producer and actor who works in Malayalam cinema. He debuted as a director with the movie Winter. His first movie in theatres was Crazy Gopalan, starring Dileep, in 2008.

Career

Prior to becoming an independent filmmaker, Deepu apprenticed as an assistant director under the ace Director Priyadarshan. His first released film was in 2008, the thriller comedy Crazy Gopalan starring Dileep in the titular role. The movie opened to commercial success. The first film he actually directed was the horror thriller Winter with Jayaram in the lead, which was released subsequently in 2009. His third film was a comedy Teja Bhai and Family starring Prithviraj in the lead, released in 2011 to commercial success. He directed the 2015 thriller Fireman starring Mammootty, which was a success critically and commercially. His 5th movie Karinkunnam 6s, a sports movie with Manju Warrier in the lead, was released in 2016. A few of his big-budgeted PAN India movies with top artistes in the Industry, planned after 2016, could not be materialized due to COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Venturing into acting and production in the post-COVID period, Deepu once again donned the cap of a Director in 2023 with "Mr & Mrs Bachelor" that's scheduled to release in August 2024.
He ventured into acting, with the Malayalam feature film "Kakkipada". He became a Producer with "Njan Kandatha Sare". Deepu currently heads his own movie production house "Lemon Productions", established in 2024. Besides handling own productions, it functions as a Line Production house, which facilitates end-to-end production of movies.

Personal life

Deepu Karunakaran is married to Archana Mohan. The couple were married in Trivandrum on the 17 January 2015. He is also the brother of actress Suchitra Murali.

Filmography

YearFilmRoleCastNotes
2008Crazy GopalanDirector, WriterDileep, Salim Kumar, Manoj K. Jayan
2009WinterDirectorJayaram, Bhavana
2011Teja Bhai & FamilyDirectorPrithviraj Sukumaran, Akhila Sasidharan
2015FiremanDirectorMammootty, Unni Mukundan
2016Karinkunnam 6SDirectorManju Warrier, Anoop Menon
2022KakkipadaActorSarath Kumar, Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju, Sujith Shankar
2023Kadina Kadoramee AndakadahamActorBasil Joseph, Parvathy R Krishna, Indrans, Jaffar Idukki
2023Thimingala VettaActorJagadish, Vijayaraghavan, Anoop Menon, Ramesh Pisharody
2024Njan Kandatha SareProducer, ActorIndrajith Sukumaran, Baiju Santhosh, Anoop Menon, Mareena-
2025Mr & Mrs BachelorDirector, Co-producer, ActorIndrajith Sukumaran, Anaswara Rajan