Jeethu Joseph

In this Indian name, the name Joseph is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Jeethu.

Jeethu Joseph (born 10 November 1972) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema.^[1] He has also worked in a few Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. Jeethu made his directional debut with the 2007 police procedural, Detective. He is best known for creating the Drishyam franchise.^[2] Drishyam became the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever at the time of its release. It was the first Malayalam film to cross the ₹50 crore mark at the box office.^[3] Drishyam 2 was released directly through Amazon Prime Video, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the prequel, it was highly acclaimed and appreciated worldwide.

Jeethu Joseph
Jeethu Joseph in 2021
Born	(1972-11-10) 10 November 1972 (age 52) Muvattupuzha, Kerala, India
Alma mater	St Berchmans College, Changanassery Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha
Occupations	Director screenwriter producer
Years active	2007–present
Spouse	Linta Jeethu
Children	2

His other works include Mummy & Me (2010), My Boss (2012),^[4] Life of Josutty (2015), Memories (2013),^[5] Oozham (2016), Aadhi (2018) and Neru (2023). Jeethu made his Tamil debut with Papanasam (2015) which is a remake of his 2013 film Drishyam,^[6][7] Hindi debut with The Body (2019),^[8] and Telugu debut with Drushyam 2 (2021) which is a remake of his own directional Malayalam film of the same name.

Early life

Jeethu Joseph was born in Muvattupuzha, Kerala, India to Leelamma and V. Joseph, a former MLA of Muvattupuzha. Jeethu wanted to attend the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) although his father wanted him to become an engineer. He attended Fathima Matha English Medium School and completed his pre degree from famous SB College Changanassery^[9] and later graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha.^[10]

Career

Early works

Jeethu Joseph started as an assistant director to Jayaraj in the film Bheebhathsam. After that, he got a chance to direct a film starring Dileep but it did not materialize and he was back where he started.^[10] Meanwhile, Jeethu developed the one-line plot of Detective. But after failing to find any producers, his mother Leelamma Joseph offered to co-produce the film, which became his debut directorial. A month into the project, a producer evinced interest and took on the production. Detective was released in 2007. The film fared well at the box-office.^[10]

His next film Mummy & Me was a success at the box-office. 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.^[10]

His third film My Boss was also a success in theatres. Jeethu's fourth movie Memories, a suspense thriller, was released in 2013 which did well in box office.^[11][12]

Post Drishyam

Towards the end of 2013, the drama-thriller Drishyam starring Mohanlal was released, which was well received critically and commercially. It was the highest-grossing Malayalam film, until 2016, and the first Malayalam film to cross ₹50 crore mark at the box office.^{[3][10][13][14]} Drishyam was remade in Tamil by Jeethu with Kamal Haasan enacting Mohanlal's role. It was also remade to Telugu, Kannada and Hindi by other directors.^[13] Jeethu then directed Dileep-starrer Life of Josutty.

Personal life

Jeethu married Linta and they have two children. Linta is a costume designer in Malayalam cinema.

Filmography

Year	Title	Credited as			Language	Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
2007	Detective	Yes	Yes	No	Malayalam
2010	Mummy & Me	Yes	Yes	No
2012	My Boss	Yes	Yes	No
2013	Memories	Yes	Yes	No
	Drishyam	Yes	Yes	No
2015	Papanasam	Yes	Yes	No	Tamil	Remake of Drishyam
	Life of Josutty	Yes	No	No	Malayalam
2016	Oozham	Yes	Yes	No
2017	Lakshyam	No	Yes	Yes
2018	Aadhi	Yes	Yes	No
2019	Mr. & Ms. Rowdy	Yes	No	Yes
	The Body	Yes	No	No	Hindi
	Thambi	Yes	Yes	No	Tamil
2021	Drishyam 2	Yes	Yes	No	Malayalam
	Drushyam 2	Yes	Yes	No	Telugu	Remake of Drishyam 2
2022	Antakshari	No	No	Presenter	Malayalam
	12th Man	Yes	No	No		Also as Merin's brother (voice only)[15]
	Kooman	Yes	No	No
2023	Neru	Yes	Yes	No		[16]
2024	Level Cross	No	No	Presenter		[17]
	Nunakkuzhi	Yes	No	No		[18]
2025	Mirage †	Yes	Yes	No		Filming[19]
TBA	Ram: Part 1 †	Yes	Yes	No		Filming

Awards and nominations

• 2013 – 44th Kerala State Film Awards - Best Popular Film - Drishyam
• 2013 – Vanitha Film Awards – Best Director – Drishyam^[20][21]
• 2013 – Kerala Film Critics Association Awards – Best Director – Drishyam^[22][23]
• 2013 – Jaihind TV Film Awards – Best Director – Drishyam
• 2013 - South Indian International Movie Awards - Best Director - Drishyam