Sreekumar Krishnan Nair – Director of India’s first full-length animated film O’Faby

Sreekumar Krishnan Nair, also known as K. Sreekkuttan is a Malayalam film director, best known for directing India’s first full-length animated film O’Faby (1993). Pavakkoothu (1990) starring Jayaram, Parvathy and Ranjini & Thakshashila (1995) starring Suresh Gopi and Shanthi Krishna are his other major directorial ventures.

Sreekumar Krishnan Nair is the son of prominent filmmaker Krishnan Nair of yesterdays

Sreekumar Krishnan Nair was born into a prolific family of writers and authors in Mannanthala, Thiruvananthapuram. His father Krishnan Nair was a famous filmmaker of 1970s who made many hit films in Malayalam and Tamil with Prem Nazir & MGR, Cochin Express, CID, Viahitha, Rickshawkaaran etc to name a few. His elder brother K. Jayakumar is an Indian civil servant, poet and lyricist, and also served as the as the first Vice Chancellor of Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University in Malappuram. He is also a well-known screenwriter and translator. His second brother is Harikumar.

O’ Faby – His celebrated work as a filmmaker

Following his father’s footsteps, Sreekumar started his career as an assistant director and has worked under director Hariharan in a series of films throughout 1980s. Sreekuttan was just 17, where he was assistant director to the film, Mayilpeeli in 1979. But the movie was never released in theatre.

Hariharan has earlier worked as an assistant under his father, before becoming a prominent name of Malayalam cinema. Under him, Sreekuttan worked as First Assistant Director, Second-Unit Director and Chief Associate Director for 17 films. Lava was the first theatre release. During this association he also got opportunity to work with the great author & screenwriter M. T. Vasudevan, known for his long-term association with Hariharan.

K. Sreekkuttan turned an independent director with Pavakkoothu

He started his independent career with the noted film, Pavakkoothu, and later directed O’ Faby, India’s first partially animated movie. He also directed action film, Thakshashila with Suresh Gopi. However he slowed down after that. His much-anticipated project Marthanda Varma, which was to be shot simultaneously in Malayalam and English was shelved a decade back. He subsequently served as the strategy director of Tecgemini.

He is currently the CEO of the streaming media and video-on-demand platform Inetscreen. In 2022 he made a documentary film in Tamil titled Vignaanian, based on accomplishments by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.