Diana Silvester – Malayalam Television producer of ‘Cinimala’ fame

Diana Silvester is a veteran and experienced Malayalam TV producer and director associated with Asianet television for more than 25 years. Started her career as Associate producer in Chennai office of Asianet in the 1990s she now serves as its assistant Vice President. As a TV show producer and director, she is best known for Cinimala, which completed 20 years and 1000 episodes thus becoming ‘longest running weekly programme in India’. The show has entered Limca Book of records. Now she also directs celebrity chat show, Badai Bangla. Mostly associated with comic shows, she has also directed many award winning documentaries.

Diana Silvester completed her media communication course from US in the early 1990s. When she returned to her hometown to settle here with her professional life, private cable network had just started to flourish in. She got her first job in Asianet through an interview in 1993, and since then she is fully associated with this TV network. She began the show Cinimala in 1993, which went on to become one of the top non-soap shows of Asianet. It’s a satire show with Malayalam movie clips. Initially it was only a movie-based show based on topics, and slowly other topics were discussed, and it turned a satire show as well.

Diana Silvester – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Since childhood humour comes naturally to her, and later she got success through satire shows. She used to participate in mimicry and mono act during school days.

2. She was a drummer during her college days.

3. Her documentary – ‘Charakathayile Jeevikkunna Raktasakshikal’ won many National and international accolades. Other noted documentaries are Mirza Ghalib, K. R. Narayan and Mehboob.

4. She is a recipient of more than 250 awards, belonging to different categories.

5. After directing 4000+ shows/episodes in a career spanning to more than 25 years, she holds the world record of woman producer-director with highest number of shows. This honour was recognized by Universal Records Forum.

6. She watched 10 Malayalam movies, and made 100 categories from it. The show with included film clippings impressed Sasikumar, and he gave green signal to show, Cinimala. Over the years, the show witnessed many changes and transformations.  

7. Her show Cinimala was first telecasted in 1993 and it completed 20 years in 2013, thus creating an Indian record of longest weekly show in the country. The show stopped with the 1000^th episode. The show also received close to 180 awards over the years.

8. Many artists who became a part of the show – Cinimala earned success and fame in Malayalam film industry later. Names of Dileep, Salim Kumar, Ramesh Pisharadi, Dharmajan and Tini Tom come first.

9. She was a recipient of ‘Woman of the year’ in year 2016.

10. She prefers to stay in crowd and loves travelling. She hates sitting alone. She has travelled many countries.

11. Though she has received offers to direct movies, she has not accepted any project till now.