Jayaram Subramaniam (born 10 December 1964), known as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who has appeared in more than two hundred films, mostly in Malayalam and also in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. A stage mimic who was given his first film by the director Padmarajan, he was for two decades Malayalam cinema’s favourite hero of family comedies, and has more recently found a second career in character roles across South India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Jayaram Subramaniam |
| Born | 10 December 1964, Perumbavoor, Ernakulam district, Kerala |
| Age | 61 |
| Occupation | Actor, percussionist |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Known for | Aparan, Sandesham, Meleparambil Aanveedu, Thooval Kottaram, Summer in Bethlehem, Manassinakkare, Thenali, Ponniyin Selvan |
| Education | Sree Sankara College, Kalady |
| Honours | Padma Shri (2011) |
| Spouse | Parvathy (m. 1992) |
| Children | 2, including Kalidas Jayaram |
Early Life
Jayaram was born at Perumbavoor into a Tamil-speaking family settled in Kerala. He studied at Sree Sankara College in Kalady, where he won prizes for mimicry at university festivals. After college he worked briefly as a medical representative and joined Kalabhavan, the Kochi institute whose mimicry troupe produced many of Malayalam cinema’s comedians. His imitations of film stars made him well known on the stage circuit.
Film Career
Malayalam
The writer-director P. Padmarajan cast him in Aparan (1988), in the double role of an innocent young man and the criminal who looks exactly like him, and used him again in Moonnam Pakkam and Innale. Through the 1990s he was the leading man of a long series of comedies and family dramas, many directed by Sathyan Anthikad and Rajasenan: Mazhavilkavadi, Thalayana Manthram, Sandesham, Meleparambil Aanveedu, Aniyan Bava Chetan Bava, Thooval Kottaram, Summer in Bethlehem and Veendum Chila Veettukaryangal. His screen character was usually an ordinary, well-meaning young man in trouble with his family, his job or his neighbours. Manassinakkare (2003) and Veruthe Oru Bharya (2008) were later hits.
After a lean period he returned to form with the crime thriller Abraham Ozler (2024), in which he played a police officer.
Tamil and Telugu
Kamal Haasan chose him as his foil in the comedies Thenali (2000), which won Jayaram a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, and Panchathanthiram. He has since appeared in many Tamil films, among them Saroja, Thuppakki and Uttama Villain, and played the comic Vaishnavite spy Azhwarkadiyan Nambi in Mani Ratnam‘s Ponniyin Selvan (2022–23). In Telugu he has taken senior roles in Bhaagamathie, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, Hi Nanna and Guntur Kaaram, and in 2025 he appeared in the Kannada epic Kantara: Chapter 1 and the Tamil film Retro.
Percussionist
He is a trained player of the chenda, the drum of Kerala’s temple ensembles, and has led large groups of drummers in performances of panchari melam at temple festivals, including at Thrissur. He keeps cattle on a farm near Perumbavoor and is known for his love of elephants, about which he has written.
Honours
He received the Padma Shri in 2011, two Kerala State Film Awards and the Kalaimamani of Tamil Nadu.
Personal Life
He married the actress Parvathy, his co-star in several early films, in 1992; she gave up acting after marriage. Their son, Kalidas Jayaram, won a National Film Award as a child actor and is now a leading man in Tamil and Malayalam films, and they have a daughter, Malavika.
Featured image: Jayaram in January 2026. Photo by Njan Karthikeyann, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
