Geetu Mohandas – Award-Winning Malayalam Filmmaker, Actress & “Toxic” Director

Former actress and now an award-winning director, a brief glimpse into the background, career and personal life of Geetu Mohandas who is presently at her career heights with the film – Toxic starring Yash.

Geetu Mohandas is an actress turned director belonging to Malayalam cinema. She is an award-winning filmmaker, whose all three works Kelkkunnundo – short film in Malayalam, Liar’s Dice – Hindi movie and Moothon – Malayalam-Hindi bilingual won many accolades at international film festivals, apart from many Indian accolades. Her first full-length movie as a director, Liar’s Dice was India’s official entry to Academy Awards, apart from winning Special Jury award at the 18th Sofia International Film Festival and two National Film Awards.

As an actress, she has played both lead and supporting actress on Malayalam screen and has won the presgious Kerala state award for best actress from Akale. She is married to acclaimed cinematographer and film director Rajeev Ravi since 2009. Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups  starring Yash (of KGF Fame) is her upcoming film as a director. Ever since the teaser of Toxic got released, Geetu Mohandas is in limelight for different reasons. The movie is scheduled for worldwide theatrical release on March 19, 2026.

Her real name is Gayatri Das

Geetu Mohandas was born in 1981 as Gayatri Das to Mohandas and Latha, and later she adopted the screen name, Geetu Mohandas. She was born in Kochi. Her primary education was done at Chinmaya Vidhyalaya, Kochi, and later she, along with her family shifted to Canada, where she continued her studies. During school days she was interested in painting and she won many prizes in contests too. Later she  studied acting at Toronto University.

Debut as a child actress

She made her screen debut at the age of 4. As a child actress she is best known for the film, Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare in 1986 co-starring Mohanlal, which bagged her the state award for best child actress. Mohanlal made a cameo in the film climax, as a stranger who Geetu’s character loves like a father after her own father’s demise, and their relationship which get connects through a wrong phone call was well depicted on screen. She reprised Baby Shalini’s role in Ente Maammaatti Kuttiyammakku, in its Tamil version titled, En Bommukutty Ammavukku, stealing everyone’s hearts. Raareeram, Saayam Sandhya, Veendum etc are a few more child artist roles on Malayalam screen.

Life is Beautiful marked Geetu’s comeback to Malayalam screen

After playing a few memorable roles, she took a break from acting. Later she returned to the silver screen with 2000 family drama, Life is Beautiful, co-starring Mohanlal and Samyuktha Varma. The movie fared only average at the box office, though received rave reviews from critics. She played the pivot role of Samyuktha Varma’s younger sister who shows attraction to her husband, the character played onscreen by Mohanlal. Read the lyrics and English translation of the song, Eneyenthu Nalkanam, which became extremely popular. She came to India for a summer holiday, and director Fasil spotted her. That’s how she was relaunched to films.

Geethu Mohandas tasted success through Thenkashipattanam

She became a part of blockbuster Thenkashipattanam, the same year. This multi-starrer action-comedy film directed by Rafi Mecartin and produced by Lal, also starred big stars like Suresh Gopi, Lal, Samyuktha Varma, Dileep and Kavya Madhavan. She got a meaty role and was featured in the chartbuster songs like Kadamizhiyil, Oru Simham and Golmaalu. She played second lead to Samyuktha Varma, who was also her costar in Life is Beautiful. Also read the lyrics and English translation of the song, Ente Thenkasi, featured in the film. Geetu was paired with Suresh Gopi and Lal in this comedy of error film. 

Later Geetu played lead roles in Valkannadi, Nammal Thammil (delayed release) etc. Kannaki, Pakalppooram, Mullavalliyum Thenmavum, Raappakal and Shesham are other memorable roles. Akale is the most memorable role of her career. Her lead role as Rose bagged her the prestigious state awards for best actress, along with her memorable role as a prostitute in Oridam. She shared the honour with Kavya Madhavan for this honour in 2005. She also bagged Filmfare awards for best actress for the role. Nammal Thammil and Seetha Kalyanam were her her final acting appearances in 2009, after which she took a sabbatical. 

She played the title role in the segment, The Virgin in the anthology film Naalu Pennungal directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. She marked her Tamil debut with Nala Damayanthi, playing lead role opposite Madhavan. The comedy-capper co-produced by Kamal Hassan was a box office hit. She appeared in one more Tamil movie, Poi in 2006.

She started film production company, ‘Unplugged’ in 2009

She turned a director with award-winning short film, Kelkkunnundo in 2009. The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and own many honours. Her first full-length film Liar’s Dice won many national and international awards. Both its lead actress Geetanjali Thapa and cinematographer Rajeev Ravi won National awards. Her second film Moothan starring Nivin Pauley had a theatre release in 2019. This Hindi-Malayalam bilingual also won several accolades including Global filmmaker award at Sundance Film Festival in 2016. But it was a big flop at box office, marking a downfall in Nivin’s career as he turned down many ambitious projects, to be a part of this one.

Toxic – The biggest turning point of Geetu Mohandas’ career

Geetu discussed the thread of the movie Toxic with actor Yash in 2019, and it took more than 6 years to get its official release. In 2025, on the occasion of Yash’s birthday, a trailer was released, which received both positive and negative response. Since then, she has been in the limelight. Since the beginning of new year 2026, teaser pics of 5 heroines have been dropped and on the occasion of Yash’s birthday, official teaser was released. The teaser of Toxic received mixed responses. While the directors like RGV and Sandeep Vanga Reddy praised her, Geetu was also criticized for the way how she depleted women on screen in her film. Further, it fuelled controversy because of Geetu Mohandas’s past stands on gender representation and her past statements in 2016 following Mammootty starrer Kasaba was released. Read more about the negative responses she got from Malayalam media and social media. The movie Toxic is to get a theatre release on 19 March 2026, clashing with the second and final part of Dhurandhar.

Geetu Mohandas – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She was featured in the popular lullaby, Raare Raariram Raaro of Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare, as a child.

2. She played screen space with Mohanlal as a child artist who gets connected through a wrong number in Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare, and played her first adult role in Life is Beautiful as Mohanlal’s sister-in-law who gets attracted towards him.

3. Her debut short film, Kelkkunnundo won 3 International awards for Best Short fiction.

4. She received Ramu Karyat Award for Most promising director 2020 for the movie, Moothon.

5. She is only an accidental actress, and she always dreamt movie making. She used to write scripts while working as an actress.

6. Since her debut short film, her husband works as her cinematographer. Since then, they worked together in all her movies, including Moothon and Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups.

7. She met her future husband in the film sets of Shesham, the movie in which Geetu played lead role and Rajeev did camera work. Love blossomed between the two and they got married in 2009.

8. She played second lead in her first two releases of year 2000. Samyuktha Varma played the first lead.

Top Malayalam film songs starring Geetu Mohandas

1. Junile Nilaamazhayil from Nammal Thammil (Read the lyrics and English translation of the song)

2. Manikuyile from Valkannadi (Read the lyrics and English translation of the song)

3. Kadamizhiyil Kamaladalam from Thenkasi Pattanam

4. Raare Raariram Raaro from Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare

5. Akale from Akale

6. Rose from Akale