Jayasurya (born 31 August 1978) is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist who works in Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a National Film Award, three Kerala State Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards South for acting and Best Actor at the Cincinnati Film Festival held in Cincinnati, US. Jayasurya has also appeared in a few Tamil films.
Jayasurya began his career as a mimicry artist and hosted a few television shows on Malayalam channels. He made his acting debut in the 1995 film Three Men Army as a junior artist. He made his debut as a lead actor in Oomappenninu Uriyadappayyan (2002). In the 2000s, Jayasurya was popular for his comic-oriented roles in Swapnakkoodu (2003), Pulival Kalyanam (2003), Chathikkatha Chanthu (2004), Kerala Cafe (2009), Chocolate (2007) and Gulumaal (2009), as well as his villainous roles in Classmates (2006), Arabikkatha (2007), and Kangaroo (2007).
By the 2010s, Jayasurya had gained critical acclaim for his roles, in films such as Cocktail (2010), Janapriyan (2011), Beautiful (2011), Trivandrum Lodge (2012), Apothecary (2014), Iyobinte Pusthakam (2014), Lukka Chuppi (2015), Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam (2015), and Captain (2018). He was also popular for comedy films such as Punyalan Agarbattis (2013), Amar Akbar Anthony (2015), Aadu (2015) and Aadu 2 (2017). Jayasurya made his debut as a producer by co-producing the film Punyalan Agarbattis and he is also credited as a playback singer in a few films.
Jayasurya won the Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in Apothecary at the 62nd Filmfare Awards South. In 2016, Jayasurya won the Special Jury Award at the 46th Kerala State Film Awards and the Special Mention at the 63rd National Film Awards for his performances in the films Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam and Lukka Chuppi. He won two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Actor for Captain and Njan Marykutty in 2018 and for Vellam in 2021.
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Early life
Jayasurya was born to Mani and Thankam at Tripunithura, Kochi. He studied at St. George U. P. School, Chambakkara, and at Government Sanskrit High School, Tripunithura. He then did his degree in Commerce at All Saints College, Ernakulam.
After his studies he joined mimicry troupes such as Crown of Cochin and Kottayam Nazeer's Cochin Discovery.
Personal life
Jayasurya married his longtime girlfriend, Saritha on 25 January 2004. The couple have two children. In 2022 he was living with his family in Kochi, dividing their time between a house in Kadavanthra and an apartment overlooking Kochi Lake near Marine Drive on the city’s seafront.
Film career
Jaysasurya started his on-screen career as a mimicry artist. He made his acting debut in the 1995 film Three Men Army as a junior artist. He made his debut as a lead actor in Oomappenninu Uriyadappayyan (2002). In the 2000s, Jayasurya was popular for his comic-oriented roles in Swapnakkoodu (2003), Pulival Kalyanam (2003), Chathikkatha Chanthu (2004), Kerala Cafe (2009), Chocolate (2007) and Gulumaal (2009), as well as his villainous roles in Classmates (2006), Arabikkatha (2007), and Kangaroo (2007). In 2005, he appeared in Bus Conductor, as a side character, starring Mammooty in lead . The following year he appeared in Kilukkam Kilukilukkam, a sequel to Kilukkam. In Classmates of the same year, he played the role of Satheesan Kanjikkuzhi, an aspiring student leader, which was considered one of his breakthrough performances. He was then cast in a negative role in Lal Jose's Arabikkatha. This followed villain roles in Hareendran Oru Nishkalankan and Kangaroo.
Jaysasurya played a variety of roles in 2007–2008: the romantic lover with a comic touch in Chocolate, the serious police officer in Positive, the humorous drama scriptwriter in Shakespeare M.A. Malayalam, the small-time thief and antagonist in LollyPop, the supporting role in Love in Singapore, and the young politician in Balachandra Menon's De Ingottu Nokkiye.
In 2010 he acted in Nallavan directed by debut director Aji John, in which he played three stages of a person born and brought up on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. The film Cocktail in 2010 was what established a new phase to his career as his performance was critically acclaimed.
In 2011, he appeared in 20 get-ups in T. V. Chandran's fantasy film Sankaranum Mohananum. The same year, he played the lead role in Beautiful which went on to become a critical and commercial success. He played the role of a paraplegic named Stephen and was well received by audiences and critics alike, all saying it was his best performance to date; and he was one of the main contenders for best actor nominations in several film awards. The film is noted for its earliest development of new generation movies that originated in the 2010s and eventually became known as New Wave Malayalam Cinema. Janapriyan and Beautiful were his most commercially successful films of the year. In a year-end report on Malayalam cinema, Deepika newspaper applauded Jayasurya for choosing the right roles and chose him as the Star of the Year 2011.
