Sharafudheen alias Sharaf U Dheen – Malayalam comic actor who played Girirajan Kozhi in ‘Premam’

Sharafudheen alias Sharaf U Dheen is a character artist of Malayalam cinema, best known for comic roles. He shot to fame after playing the role of Girirajan Kozhi, one among Nivin Pauley’s friends in mega blockbuster – Premam. It was only his third movie, and his first two movies – Neram (2013) and Ohm Shanthi Oshaana (2014) also starred Nivin Pauley in lead roles. Later he played noted roles in Happy Wedding, Welcome to Central Jail, Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol, Role Models, Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela, Carbon, Virus, Varathan, Anjaam Pathiraa etc.

He played an uncredited role in his debut flick, Neram

Sharaf U Dheen was born in Aluva in 1984. After higher secondary classes, he completed his studies through online courses, worked as car sales executive and also founded a tourism startup called Seasonz India Holidays, before he made up his mind to pursue his acting dreams. He played the brief role of a tutor in his debut flick, Neram directed by Alphonse Puthren. Later the same director gave him a major break through Premam, and there was no turning back after that. In between he played a noted serious role of a marriage broker and mechanic in Ohm Shanthi Oshaana.

Sharaf U Dheen in yellow shirt – One of the popular scenes of the movie, Premam

His role as Girirajan Kozhi in Premam who tries to woo Mary and Arabic filled love proposal garnered him good response from public. After he gained recognition through Premam, he mostly played comic roles, and in most cases his roles got noticed. He did a role similar to Premam in Happy Wedding – an engineering student named Hari. He played villain’s role in Varathan and lead hero role in Neeyum Njaanum. He appeared in around 25 films till now.

Sharaf U Dheen – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Though he is a mimicry artist, celluloid was in his distant dreams. There was one school teacher, Maya who firmly believed that he would join film stream and become an actor.

2. Sharaf U Dheen’s first three movies starred Nivin Pauley in lead role. In fact all these films – Neram (2013), Ohm Shanthi Oshaana (2014) and Premam (2015) played a magnificent role in establishing Nivin a huge star. He also appeared in Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela (2016).

3. He was familiar to Alphonse Puthren and Nivin Pauley before the trio became a part of Malayalam film industry. They were good friends too. It was a time when Sharaf was doing short films with Alphonse, when he was introduced to Nivin. He met the director for the first time at a basket court.

4. He seems to be lucky to many Malayalam debut directors. He was featured in the debut movies of Alphonse Puthren (Neram), G. Marthandan (Pavada), Omar Lulu (Happy Wedding), Althaf Salim (Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela) and Anthany Joseph (Ohm Shanthi Oshaana) were commercial hits.  

5. He was a movie buff right from childhood days. Though he had a television at home, he preferred to watch movies with a group of friends, and hence assemble at anyone of their homes. He never missed movies shown on television those days.

6. When Shahid Kapoor’s Ishq Vishq got released, many of his friends felt that Sharaf U Dheen has face resemblance with the actor, and hence he watched the movie. He also earned the nickname, Shahid Kapoor those school days.