Mohanlal was born as the son of Mr. Vishwanathan Nair, a lawyer and government employee, and Mrs. Santhakumari on May 21, 1960, in Elanthoor, Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. The family later relocated to Thiruvananthapuram's Mudavanmugal, his maternal house.
Mohanlal's first attempt with acting:
Mohanlal started his schooling at Mudavanmugal LP School, from there he moved to Model School, Thiruvananthapuram. It was there, for his acting skills he found a platform. He was named as the school's best performer in 1972. He bagged the award by competing with the 10th grade students, and he was in 6th grade himself at the time. He finished his under graduation Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram. He was able to form an association there with like-minded fellow students, who were passionate about theater and feature films.
Audition & Filming First Time:
Mohanlal received his first film entry when his friends started Bharath Cine Community, a film service. They made a film 'Thiranottam,' in which they offered Mohanlal a comedic part to perform. Unfortunately, this film was just released in one theater and could not reach a wider audience. His first significant breakthrough in cinemas came in the 1980s alone. Apparently, friends of Mohanlal got him to audition for a production house that was looking for a fresh face and he was able to make it and Navodaya Appachen chose him to play the role of antagonist in the film Manjil Virinja Pookkal that turned out to be a major hit.
Raised as Star:
In the movie 'Manjil Virinja Pookal' Mohanlal debuted. The film got great success at the box office. In the movie he played the role of a sadistic youth. His acting gave negative character a new dimension. His character "Narendran" was fascinated by the villain role he honestly played in Malayalis' hearts and minds. The film witnessed the rise of a celebrity and became a big part of Indian cinema.
Gigantic Stardom at Malayalam Cinema:
He was featured in more than 25 films by 1983. From there Mohanlal's journey began as an actor. He had a variety of characters as a young talent, which helped him prove his mettle as an actor. He and a number of Malayalam film directors and script writers turned pally in due course. The mid-1980s proved most beneficial for Mohanlal, as he was awarded the first Kerala State award for best actor by Sathyan Anthikad's T.P.Balagopalan M.A. He also portrayed an underworld don in the 1986 Rajavinte Makan blockbuster film that took him to the Malayalam industry's Ultimate Stardom. This period, Mohanlal 's reputation among teenage filmmakers was tremendously enhanced, which also gave him a superstar image.
In the 1990s, Mohanlal performed in a number of prominent commercial and art films such as 'His Highness Abdullah,' 'Midhunam,' Minnaram,' and 'Manichithrathazhu.' 'Devasuram' was one of the incredible films, Malayalam industry has ever seen, written by Ranjith and directed by I.V.Sasi. The first non-Malayalam film that Mohanlal made was the Tamil film Iruvar(1997), directed by Mani Ratnam. He received his second National Best Actor award for the Indo-French film 'Vanaprastham'(1999). The movie has also been chosen for the Cannes Film Festival competition. Mohanlal's film 'Guru' (1997) was selected as India's official entry to the Oscars and was considered in the 1997 Best Foreign Film category for nomination.
Unstoppable actor:
Mohanlal has been completely immersed in the Malayalam industry in his permanent spot at NUMERO UNO. He is known to be the biggest crowd pulling Malayalee star, and was picked by CNN-IBN as the most famous Keralite ever in a 2008 online poll. Because of his tremendous crowd-pulling ability, Mohanlal and his films remain the keystone of the Malayalam industry.
Keerthichakra, released in 2006, has proved a breakthrough in the genre of military films. The character Major Mahadevan 's influence from the Keerthichakra movie made many youngsters pursue a career in the Indian army. Later the Indian Army honoured the star by awarding the Indian territorial army honorary lieutenant colonel.
The ultimate Performer:
The year 2012 witnessed a landmark in Malayalam Movies history. It happened that Drishyam starring Mohanlal became the first Malayalam film to cross 50 cr in the box office. A more colorful feather attached to Mohanlal 's cap in 2016. Pulimurugan became the first Malayalam film to enter the club at 100cr. It was one of the top three South Indian movies of the year 2016 to gross 100 cr. In addition to Malayalam, the roles Mohanlal plays in Telugu movie proved to be a big success. In Telugu too, the energy of Mohanlal transformed into a crowd puller.
