Jeethu Joseph
Jeethu Joseph is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He has also worked in a few Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. He made his directional debut with the 2007 suspense thriller Detective. He is best known for directing the 2013 crime thriller Drishyam starring Mohanlal, which was the highest-grossing Malayalam film at the time of its release. Its sequel Drishyam 2 was released on Amazon Prime Video, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like its prequel, it was highly acclaimed and appreciated worldwide.
His other works include Mummy & Me, My Boss, Memories, Life of Josutty, Oozham, Aadhi, Neru, Nunakkuzhi, and Mirage. Jeethu made his Tamil debut with Papanasam, a remake of his 2013 film Drishyam, Hindi debut with The Body, and Telugu debut with Drushyam 2, a remake of Drishyam 2.
Early life
Jeethu Joseph was born in Mutholapuram, Muvattupuzha, Kerala, India to Leelamma and V. Joseph, a former MLA of Muvattupuzha. He wanted to attend the Film and Television Institute of India, although his father wanted him to become an engineer. He attended Fathima Matha English Medium School and completed his pre-degree from SB College Changanassery and later graduated with a Bachelor of Economics from Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha.Career
Jeethu Joseph started his career as an assistant director to Jayaraj. He got a chance to direct a film starring Dileep however it failed to materialize. Meanwhile, Jeethu developed the one-line plot of Detective. Ater failing to find a producer, his mother Leelamma Joseph offered to co-produce the film, which became his directorial debut. A month into the project, a producer took interest and agreed to produce the film. Detective was released in 2007. The film fared well at the box-office.His next film, the comedy-drama Mummy & Me was a box-office success. Mummy and Me, although it took close to three years in the making, marked a turning point in his career as director. "My first film was easy compared to the struggle I had to go through for my second, Mummy and Me." There were offers to make films like Detective, but Jeethu declined. "I wanted to do a different film" It was for this reason that, though he had one line scripts of Mummy and Me and Memories ready in 2008, he chose to make Mummy and Me. His third film My Boss starring Dileep was also a commercial success. His fourth film, the slasher thriller Memories starring Prithviraj Sukumaran was released in 2013 and performed well at the box-office.
In 2013, he directed the crime thriller Drishyam starring Mohanlal, which was critically and commercially acclaimed. It was the highest-grossing Malayalam film, until 2016, and the first Malayalam film to cross the 50 crore mark at the box-office. Drishyam has been remade into four regional languages including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and Kannada, as well as internationally in Sinhalese and Mandarin Chinese. In 2015, he directed Life of Josutty starring Dileep and Papanasam, the Tamil remake of Drishyam starring Kamal Haasan. His next directorial, Oozham, starring Prithviraj was a commercial success. In 2018, he directed the action-thriller Aadhi which marked the acting of debut of Pranav Mohanlal. Aadhi received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success at the box-office.
In 2021, he directed Drishyam 2, the sequel to his 2013 film Drishyam which released on Amazon Prime Video. Like its prequel, it was critically acclaimed by critics. The third instalment in the franchise Drishyam 3 will release in 2026.