Mammootty Wins Fourth National Best Actor Award for 'Bramayugam' After 28 Years

'Bramayugam' earns Malayalam icon Mammootty his fourth Best Actor honour after 28-year wait

Thiruvananthapuram, July 18

The honour is his fourth National Award for Best Actor, placing him alongside Amitabh Bachchan as the only actor to have won the coveted award four times.

The award marks the end of a 28-year wait for Mammootty, whose previous National Award for Best Actor came in 1998.

The latest recognition is being widely hailed as one of the most deserved honours of his illustrious career, with critics describing his haunting portrayal in Bramayugam as one of the finest performances in recent Indian cinema.

The 74-year-old actor was in Chennai when news of the award reached him.

With a career spanning more than five decades and over 400 films, Mammootty's journey has been one of extraordinary perseverance.

Although he made his screen debut in 1971, he had to wait until 1980 for his first credited role.

From there, he painstakingly built a career that saw him emerge as one of Malayalam cinema's most versatile and dependable performers.

By the late 1980s, Mammootty had established himself at the pinnacle of the Malayalam film industry, a position he continues to occupy with remarkable consistency.

Released on February 15, 2024, Bramayugam stood apart as a rare black-and-white period horror drama.

The film earned widespread critical acclaim for its performances, cinematography, music and production design, while also emerging as one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of the year.

Mammootty had earlier won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for the same performance, his seventh State Best Actor honour.

The film's international stature also grew when it was selected for a special screening at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in February this year as part of the Where the Forest Meets the Sea series.

It became the first Mammootty starrer to be screened at the prestigious museum, introducing the actor and the film to a wider global audience.

The National Award crowns what has already been a landmark year for the veteran actor.

Earlier this year, Mammootty was conferred the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his immense contribution to Indian cinema.

The latest National Award is more than a personal milestone.

It is a tribute to an actor who has continually reinvented himself across generations, refusing to be constrained by age, image or convention.

At 74, Mammootty has once again demonstrated why he remains one of Indian cinema's greatest performers, reaffirming a legacy built over five decades through discipline, versatility and an unrelenting pursuit of excellence.

— IANS