Lal
Lal in 2015
Born	M. P. Michael (1958-12-02)2 December 1958 (age 66) Kochi,Kerala, India
Occupations	Actor director screenwriter producer distributor
Years active	1984–present
Spouse	Nancy Lal ​ (m. 1987)​
Children	2 (includingLal Jr.)

M. P. Michael (born 2 December 1958), better known by hisstage nameLal, is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, producer and distributor who predominantly works inMalayalam andTamil films and in a fewTelugu films. Lal has won several awards, including aNational Film Award – Special Mention for acting (2012), twoKerala State Film Award for Best Actor (2008, 2013), and aFilmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam (2008). He is the owner of Lal Media Arts, apost-production studio.

Lal was born as Michael to the late M. A. Paul and late Philomina, as their eldest son. He received his schooling at St. Augustine's High School, Ernakulam. His brotherAlex Paul is a music composer in theMalayalam film industry and his sonJean is a movie director in the same industry. Lal's younger sister Neena's sonBalu Varghese is an actor in the Malayalam film industry.

He started his career as a mimicry artist inKalabhavan, along with his childhood friendSiddique, who would later team up asSiddique-Lal to make many films.^[1] Lal and Siddique began their film career working asassistant directors toFazil inNokkethadhoorathu Kannum Nattu.^[2][3]

Siddique-Lal production had never been dependent on star value or superstar formula that was witnessed in those days in Malayalam cinema. They had always opted out from castingMohanlal orMammootty. Ultimately, both of them had changed their thoughts later and when their fourth production film was to get launched,Siddique-Lal had opted for Mohanlal and madeVietnam Colony (1992) which did wonders in the box office too. The duo again had combined in their fifth production and madeKabooliwala (1994), which was also a success.

After that, both decided to part ways as a director pair and Lal turned producer with the Siddique-directedMammootty-starrerHitler.^[3] Lal debuted in acting with a villain role as Paniyan inSuresh Gopi-starrerKaliyattam, directed byJayaraj.Kaliyattam was a new take onOthello, where Lal played Paniyan, the character standing forIago. He runs a film post-production company named as Lal Media Arts,Kochi. The year 2009 saw his comeback again as a director. He directed the sequel toIn Harihar Nagar named2 Harihar Nagar, which got released and was declared a hit. For his performance in the 2012 filmOzhimuri, he won theNational Film Award – Special Mention.^[4] He was won ofKerala State Film Award for Best Actor inThalappavu (2008),Ayaal (2013) andZachariayude Garbhinikal (2013). He later directed films likeKing Liar (2016),Honey Bee 2.5 (2017) andTsunami (2021).^[5][6][7]

Lal, who also plays an important role inSulthan (2021) and also heaped praise onMari Selvaraj forKarnan (2021).^[8] Despite being given the most uni-dimensional character in the storyTaanakkaran (2022), the actor effortlessly carries the role and leaves arguably more impact than in his previous outing.^[9] He roped in to play the role of a warrior inMani Ratnam’sPonniyin Selvan: I (2022) andPonniyin Selvan: II (2023).^[10]

He starred in the Malayalam web seriesKerala Crime Files (2023) as Inspector which was released onDisney + Hotstar.^[11] and joined season 2 of Amazon prime seriesSuzhal.^[12]

Lal is married to Nancy and they have two children— a sonJean Paul Lal and a daughter Monica Lal. Jean Paul is afilm director.

• 1987:Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal – Script supervisor andassistant director (asSiddique–Lal)

• Lal atIMDb
• Lal Actor/ Director SNP Database

• Malayalam film directors
• Male actors from Kochi
• 1958 births
• Living people
• Kerala State Film Award winners
• Malayalam screenwriters
• Male actors in Malayalam cinema
• Indian male film actors
• Filmfare Awards South winners
• Indian male screenwriters
• Film directors from Kochi
• 20th-century Indian male actors
• 21st-century Indian male actors
• Male actors in Telugu cinema
• Film producers from Kochi
• Screenwriters from Kochi
• 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights
• 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights
• Malayalam film producers
• 20th-century Indian male writers
• 21st-century Indian male writers
• Kerala Film Critics Awards winners
• Special Mention (feature film) National Film Award winners

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• EngvarB from August 2014
• Use dmy dates from September 2021
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