Mammootty made his acting debut in the Malayalam film ‘Anubhavangal Paalichakal’ in 1971. His first leading role was in I. V. Sasi’s unreleased film ‘Devalokam’ (1979) but a breakthrough came in 1981 with his performance in ‘Ahimsa’, a political film also directed by Sasi. Major commercial successes during this time included the 1983 films ‘Sandhyakku Virinja Poovu’ and ‘Aa Raathri’. Following a series of box office failures, the 1987 crime thriller ‘New Delhi’ improved his commercial standing. The films that followed through the next decade established Mammootty as one of the leading stars of the Malayalam film industry.
The 2000s were a period of critical and commercial success for the actor. His performance in the Hindi and English-language bilingual biopic ‘Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’ (2000) won him the National Film Award for Best Actor, and he gained much recognition for ‘Kaazcha’ (2004) and ‘Paleri Manikyam’ (2009). He garnered further critical praise for the satire ‘Pranchiyettan & the Saint’ (2010), drama ‘Varsham’ (2014), period drama ‘Pathemari’ and black comedy ‘Unda’ (2019), receiving several awards for the first three. His commercial hit releases include the period action ‘Mamangam’ and ‘Madhura Raja’ in 2019, and the action thriller ‘Bheeshma Parvam’ in 2022.
Mammootty is the chairman of Malayalam Communications, which runs the Malayalam television channels Kairali TV, Kairali News and Kairali We. He is the owner of multiple production ventures, including the distribution-production banner Playhouse and the Mammootty Kampany.
Mammootty has acted in Tamil films for directors including K. Balachander (Azhagan), Mani Ratnam (Thalapathy), Fazil (Kilippechu Kekkavaa), N. Linguswamy (Aanandham), R. K. Selvamani (Makkal Aatchi), Marumalarchi Bharathi (Marumalarchi) and Ethirum Puthirum and Rajiv Menon (Kandukondain Kandukondain) (2000). He also appeared in K. Viswanath’s Telugu film ‘Swathi Kiranam’ (1992).
