Basil Joseph

Basil Joseph, honestly, he’s just one of those guys who seems to have it all figured out—except, you know, not in that annoying way. Born and raised in Sultan Bathery, he did the whole well-rounded student thing: sports, choir, drama—the works. College life in Trivandrum? Same deal. He kept himself busy with competitions and all sorts of extracurriculars, like he just couldn’t sit still. After graduation, he jumped straight into the rat race at Infosys, and, yeah, that’s where a lot of folks would’ve settled. Not Basil. While juggling code and deadlines, he shot his first zero-budget short film, “Priyamvadha Katharayano,”—which, honestly, has to be the most Malayalam indie title ever. And boom, he was on Mollywood’s radar at just 22. One thing led to another, and soon enough, he ditched his comfy tech job for the mad world of movies. Tamil cinema had a big grip on him; you can totally see the influences of directors like Karthik Subbaraj and Guy Ritchie in his style. He started out as an assistant director in “Thira” (2013), but by 2015, he was running the show himself with “Kunjiramayanam.” Then came “Godha,” a sports drama, and the wild ride that was “Minnal Murali”—India’s answer to rural superheroes—which smashed it on Netflix and bagged him an Asian Academy Award. 2022? Massive year. “Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hei” drops, and Basil’s no longer just the brain behind the camera; he’s front and center as an actor. The film’s a hilarious-yet-biting look at gender stereotypes and domestic violence, and it totally blew up at the box office, making way more than its tiny budget ever promised.