Veteran Malayalam actor-filmmaker Sreenivasan hospitalised, in ICU with ventilator support

Noted Malayalam actor Sreenivasan has been admitted to a hospital in Kochi with acute breathlessness, following physical exertion, hospital sources said Wednesday. 

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Ernakulam Medical Centre Hospital sources said the 62-year-old actor was brought to the hospital Wednesday morning in a serious condition. 

He is in the ICU with ventilator support and is being treated by a team of specialist doctors, including a cardiologist, intensivist, anaesthesiologist and a physician, they said. 

According to reports, a medical bulletin from Ernakulam Medical Centre has stated that Sreenivasan might have suffered a heart failure. He is also grappling with high blood pressure, though his condition has improved overall, reports quoting the bulletin said.   

Sreenivasan is also an acclaimed screenwriter, filmmaker, and Malayalam film producer. 

Sreenivasan has been in the industry for over four decades, having made his debut in the late ‘70s. Since then he has featured in over 200 films as an actor in all kinds of genres, though his comic timing is particularly appreciated. Apart from that, he has written several films, notably for Priyadarshan and in movies starring Mohanlal. 

Several films starring Sreenivasan have been remade into Hindi, notably by Priyadarshan, one such movie was ‘Billu’, where Irrfan Khan’s character was adapted from the Malayalam actor’s ‘Kadha Parayumbol’, which he had written.

As a director, the 62-year-old has helmed ‘Vadakkunokkiyantram’ starring himself, Jagadish, Innocent, Parvathy Jayaram, among others in 1989. He also directed ‘Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala’ featuring himself and Sangeetha in 1998.

The former won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Film, while the latter was awarded the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues and Best Popular Film Award at the 29th Kerala State Film Awards. His work as an actor has been honoured several times at Kerala State Film Awards and other awards. 

Sreenivasan was last seen in ‘Njan Prakashan’, a movie starring Fahadh Faasil last year which was also written by him. 

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His son Vineeth Srinivasan is also an actor-filmmaker. The father-son duo has featured in multiple films together including last year’s ‘Aravindante Athidhikal’, ‘Makante Achan’, ‘Traffic’ among others. 

(With inputs from PTI)