Prithviraj Sukumaran (born 16 October 1982) is an Indian actor, director, producer and playback singer primarily working in Malayalam cinema. He has also done Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. He acted in more than 100 films in a variety of roles and has received several awards including a National Film Award, three Kerala State Film Awards, a Tamil Nadu State Film Award and a Filmfare Awards South.
Prithviraj made his acting debut with Nandanam (2002), a commercial success. He established himself as a leading Malayalam actor with Classmates (2006), the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year. The Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for Vaasthavam made him its youngest recipient at 24. He played a musician in the Tamil romantic comedy Mozhi (2007) and ventured into playback singing with Puthiya Mukham (2009) before earning his second Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for medical drama Ayalum Njanum Thammil and biographical film Celluloid.
In 2010, Prithviraj joined the production house August Cinema to then headline and co-produce Urumi and Indian Rupee (both 2011); the latter won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam and Kerala State Film Award for Best Film. He won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Villain for Kaaviya Thalaivan (2014) before appearing in Ennu Ninte Moideen (2015) and Ezra (2017). After leaving August Cinema in 2017, he launched Prithviraj Productions independently that firstly backed 9 (2019). Prithviraj made his directorial debut with Lucifer (2019), the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever. He has since starred in Driving License (2019), Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020), Jana Gana Mana (2022) and Kaduva (2022).
Early life
Prithviraj with his mother Mallika Sukumaran and niece Prarthana Indrajith at an event in 2009
Prithviraj was born to the actors Sukumaran and Mallika Sukumaran at Thiruvananthapuram.
His family was settled in Tamil Nadu at the time, where he attended Shrine Vailankanni Senior Secondary School in T. Nagar, Chennai, and St. Joseph's Boys School, Coonoor. When the family moved to Kerala, he attended the NSS Public School, Perunthanni. He then moved to St. Mary's Residential Central School, Poojappura where he acted in plays and skits for the school's Annual Day Celebrations. He completed his education at Sainik School, Kazhakootam and Bhavan's Senior Secondary School, Kodunganoor. He also participated and won several debates and elocution competitions while in school. Prithviraj won the title of "Mr LA Fest" in the Annual Inter-School arts festival hosted by Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram in successive years and is the only person to date to win that title twice.
After school, he studied for a bachelor's degree in Information Technology at the University of Tasmania in Australia. During this time, he auditioned for film director Ranjith and won the lead role in the film Nandanam. It was film director Fazil who introduced him to Ranjith. His elder brother Indrajith Sukumaran and sister-in-law Poornima Indrajith are also film actors.
