Jeethu Joseph

Jeethu Joseph (born 10 November 1972) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He has also worked in a few Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films, a few of which are remade from his own Malayalam films. He made his directional debut with the 2007 suspense thriller Detective. He is best known for directing the 2013 crime thriller Drishyam starring Mohanlal, which was the highest-grossing Malayalam film at the time of its release. Its sequel Drishyam 2 was released on Amazon Prime Video, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like its prequel, it was highly acclaimed and appreciated worldwide.

His other works include Mummy & Me (2010), My Boss (2012), Memories (2013), Life of Josutty (2015), Oozham (2016), Aadhi (2018), Neru (2023), Nunakkuzhi (2024), and Mirage (2025). Jeethu made his Tamil debut with Papanasam (2015), a remake of his 2013 film Drishyam, Hindi debut with The Body (2019), and Telugu debut with Drushyam 2 (2021), a remake of Drishyam 2.

Early life Jeethu Joseph was born at Mutholapuram, a small village near Muvattupuzha in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. His father, V. V. Joseph, was a politician who belonged to the Kerala Congress (Joseph) party and served as the MLA from Muvattupuzha Assembly constituency.

Jeethu studied at Fatima Matha School in Piravom and then at St. Berchmans College, Changanassery, before completing his B.A. degree in Economics from Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha.

Career Jeethu Joseph started his career as an assistant director to Jayaraj. He got a chance to direct a film starring Dileep however it failed to materialize. Meanwhile, Jeethu developed the one-line plot of Detective. After failing to find a producer, his mother Leelamma Joseph offered to co-produce the film, which became his directorial debut. A month into the project, a producer took interest and agreed to produce the film. Detective was released in 2007. The film fared well at the box-office. Drishyam has been remade into four regional languages including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and Kannada, as well as internationally in Sinhalese and Mandarin Chinese. The third instalment in the franchise, Drishyam 3, was released on the 21st of May 2026.

Personal life Jeethu is married to Linta. The couple have two daughters, Catherine Ann and Katina Ann. Linta is a costume designer who has worked on several of his films.

Filmography

As producer

Awards and nominations