Dileep(III)

Dileep was born Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai and is an Indian actor, producer, playback singer, and businessman who works in the Malayalam film industry.

Dileep is the eldest of three children and completed his schooling in Kerala. He studied at Vidyadhiraja Vidya Bhavan Higher Secondary School in Aluva and then completed his higher secondary at Union Christian College.

He completed his Bachelor's degree in History at Maharaja's College, Ernakulam.

During this period, he dedicated himself to perfecting his mimicry and impressionist performances. He also produced and sang in De Maveli Kombathu, an Onam-based audio cassette album that became his gateway to the film industry. Dileep worked as a mimicry artist at Kalabhavan in the 1980s.

He appeared in Comicola, a popular comedy show by Asianet.

He did minor roles, like Ennodishtam Koodamo (1992) and Manathe Kottaram (1994), in which he started using his screen name Dileep.

In 1996, he was a part of more than ten films and gained more popularity because of his roles in Ee Puzhayum Kadannu (1996), in which he appears as Gopi, and Sallapam (1996) by Sundardas, in which he plays the role of Sasikumar.

He played a small role in I.V. Sasi's Varnapakittu (1997), where he acted as Pullankunnel Paulachan.

The popular combination of Dileep-Harisree Ashokan took off and became extremely popular after the success of Punjabi House (1998) in 1998. He played the role of Unnikrishnan in the movie.

He got appreciated for his movies like Ee Parakkum Thalika (2001), in which he got the role of Unnikrishnan, and Kuberan (2002), in which he plays Siddharthan.

In 2002 he played the role of Kunjan in the film Kunjikkoonan (2002) and won the Kerala State Film Special Jury ward. He also won Best Actor for this movie at the Asianet Film awards for this film.

He played the role of the thief Madhavan in Lal Jose's Meesha Madhavan (2002). This performance increased Dileep's popularity as a star in Malayalam cinema.

He won the Best Actor in Malayalam cinema award at Filmfare Awards South for this role.

He also appeared in his debut Tamil movie Raajjiyam (2002), in which he plays the role of Surya.

In 2003, Dileep initiated the film production company Graand Production with its debut, C.I.D. Moosa (2003), a comedy. He plays the role of Sahadevan/ CID Moosa in the hit movie.

In another production, Kadhavaseshan (2004) by T.V. Chandran. He plays the role of Gopinath.

He won the Second Best Film - Kadhavasheshan (producer) by Kerala State Awards (2004) for this movie. Besides that, he won the Best Actor and Special Jury awards at the Kerala Film Critics Association Awards and Asianet Film Awards, respectively.

Dileep was highly appreciated for his performance as Radhakrishnan in Chanthupottu (2005). He won a special mention for this movie at Kerala State Film Awards. He also got the Best Actor award for the movie at Kerala Film Critics Association Awards.

Dileep produced Twenty:20 (2008) to accumulate funds for AMMA, the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists, which also turned out to be a blockbuster Malayalam film with Rs. 31.4 crores until that time. This movie won the Best Film Award at the Asianet Film Awards in 2008.

He collaborated with Malarvaadi Arts Club for production.

His 100th film was Kaaryasthan (2010), in which he played the role of Krishnanunni.

His other popular performances and movies include Vellaripravinte Changathi (2011), in which he plays the roles of Mukkom Shajahan and Ravi. He was honoured with the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor.

In 2013, Dileep was given the Award of Excellence at Asianet Film Awards for completing 20 years in the Malayalam film industry. In the same year, he also won the award as the most popular actor at Vanitha Film Awards.

He plays the role of Ullas in Two Countries (2015), which did reasonably well at the box office. Ramaleela (2017), in which he plays the role of Ramanunni, was another blockbuster of that time.

His TV performances include playing roles in Comicola (Asianet), Cinemala (Asianet), Dhe Chef (Mazhavil Manorama), a cooking reality show, and Comedy Mamankam (Asianet)

Dileep and Manju Warrier married on October 20, 1998, and had a daughter, Meenakshi, in 2000. The couple got divorced on January 31, 2015. Later, he married actress Kavya Madhavan, and they had a daughter, Mahalakshmi, in 2018.