Insight Award 2015 – Adv. Jayapala Menon was born on 24 th July, 1934, at Chittur, which was then part of the erstwhile Kingdom of Kochi. While continuing his education in Calcutta where he studied law he started working for the Communist Party. Leaving his lucrative legal profession he took over the responsibilities of the Managing Director of Janasakthi Films started in 1977 by the Communist Party (Marxist) to produce, promote and propagate good films. History will record the years of Janasakthi Films as the golden age of parallel film movement in Kerala.
Insight Award 2016 – K. S. Sethumadhavan (Born 1931, in Palakkad) is an Indian film director and screenwriter working in Malayalam cinema. He has also directed films in Hindi, Oriya, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. Since the early 1960s he has directed over 60 movies. He has directed many landmark films in the Malayalam film history such as Odeyil Ninnu, Yakshi, Kadalpalam, Achanum Bappayum, Ara Nazhika Neram, Panitheeratha Veedu, Anubhavangal Palichakal and Punarjanmam. He has won numerous awards including ten National Film Awards and Nine Kerala State Film Awards including Four for Best.
Insight Award 2017 – K. P. Kumaran is a Malayalam film maker. He co-authored the script of Swayamvaram directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Kumaran’s first directorial venture was Athithi. His major films include Rugmini (winner of the 1989 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam), Thenthulli, Laxmivijayam and Thottam. His latest venture was a future film.
Insight Award 2018 – T. Krishnanunni is one of the most respected sound designers in India. After completing a course in Sound Recording and Sound Engineering from the Pune Film & Television Institute in 1976 and a short stint at SAC, Ahmedabad, he joined Chitranjali Studio of KSFDC, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1980. He directed several short films and documentaries and received President’s award for the Best Director for his biographical documentary on Vaidya Ratnam P. S. Warrier. He has authored a book titled ‘Sound in Moving Pictures’.
Insight Award 2019 – Karuvannoor Puthanveettil Sasi is an Indian film-maker and cartoonist from Kerala. He started working as a cartoonist, while a student at JNU during the late seventies and started experimenting with films on 8mm during the early eighties. His works include Ilayum Mullum, Malayalam feature film (1991), Ek Alag Mausam, Hindi feature film (1998) etc. He has published ‘When the Birds Stop Singing’, a handbook on the problems of pesticides (2000). His films have won awards at several national and international film festivals. He is one of the founder members of ViBGYOR Film Festival.
Insight Award 2020 – Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan is in the lime light for the last four decades with her appreciation and criticism in the news media such as The Hindu, Indian Express, Cinema India, Deep Focus and so on. She has taken her doctorate in “Malayalam Cinema – Society and Politics of Kerala” from the Madras University and completed Film Appreciation Course at Pune Film Institute. She was selected for the award for her deep study of Malayalam Cinema, Sub titling various films and translating Malayalam works to English of famous writers such as Madmbu Kunjikuttan (Brashtu), Kovilan (Thattakam), Sara Joseph (Ooru kaval), Valsala (Agneyam) etc.
Insight Award 2021 – Shri. Venugopal, Film Editor, who has been elected for the 7th Insight Award for 2021 was born in February 1954, Thrissur District, Kerala. He studied at St. Thomas College, Thrissur. He entered the film industry in 1973, starting with the editing of a feature film, ‘Niramala’, directed by P. Ramdas. He collaborated with over 160 feature films and several documentaries and short films with renowned directors including T.V Chandran, K.P. Kumaran, Priyanandan and Shaji N. Karun. Many of these movies, including Piravi, Ponthanmada, Uppu, Mangamma, Purushaartham, Gharshom, Rugmani, Pavithram, Alicinte Anweshanam, Susanna, etc., received national and state awards and other recognitions. He received the Kerala State Award in 1989 for the feature film “Alicinte Anweshanam” and Film Critics Award in 2000 for the feature film “Susanna”.
Insight Award 2022 – Shri. Madhu Ambat was born on 6 March 1949 in Ernakulam to Ambat Sulochana and the famous magicartist and professor of English, K. Bhagyanath. He is a graduate and holds a diploma from the Film Institute of India, Poona, from where he graduated in 1973, securing a gold medal. Madhu Ambat started his career with a documentary for one of the all time greats of Malayalam cinema Ramu Kariat. Since then, in a career spanning about four decades, he has worked as cinematographer for over 250 films in nine languages.