biography

Shaji Neelakantan Karunakaran (1 January 1952 – 28 April 2025), better known as Shaji N. Karun, was an Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film Piravi won the Caméra d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the inaugural chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the first academy for film and TV in India and was also the executive chairman of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) from 1998 to 2001.