Sanjana Dipu- The female actress who played Mulla in ‘Moothon’

Sanjana Dipu is a female child artist who works in Malayalam films. In 2019 she marked her big screen debut with highly acclaimed award winning film, ‘Moothon’, playing 14-year old younger ‘brother’ of Nivin Pauley, Mulla. She is also a familiar face in the social platform, Tiktok where she impersonates Bollywood actress Alia Bhat. She is a second year student of Psychology studying at Bangalore, when her debut film Moothon hit theatres and received positive responses. Indian cricketer S. Sreesanth is her paternal uncle. She is the niece of playback singer Madhu Balakrishnan too.

Sanjana Dipu’s entry to films was just co-incidence. Moothon’s director Geetu Mohandas is a friend of Sanjana’s father (also his cousin’s friend), and they accidentally bumped in a theatre, for watching a film. Geetu was in search of a newcomer to play ‘Mulla’ for her upcoming release, ‘Moothon’ and her eyes got struck in Sanjana. Though Sanjana has always nurtured her dreams to show face on silver screen, she never imagined such a grand debut in movies.

A scene from Moothon, where Sanjana plays a boy on screen

It was a real challenge for a newcomer to play a 14-year old boy onscreen. She was studying in Plus-One when she received the role. So she had to try hard to change mannerisms and behaviour of a teenager girl to get fit into the role of a boy. Since school days she has participated in debates related to gender equality and she has a strong stand on gender identity. For the same reason she could easily related herself to the theme of the movie.

Sanjana Dipu – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She belongs to a business family, and born as the daughter of Dipu Santhan and Kalpana. Her father owns a music company in Kochi.

2. She is the niece of Indian cricketer Sreesanth. Her father and Sreesanth are brothers.

3. Her paternal aunt Nivedita is a television actress, and another aunt Divya is married to famous playback singer Madhu Balakrishnan.

4. There was nowhere mentioned in the ‘Moothon’ posters the real identity of Sanjana. It was only revealed after the film’s theatre release.

5. She had no experience in acting earlier, and for the role, she had to cut her hair.