M. R. Gopakumar

M. R. Gopakumar started his acting career as an amateur theatre actor in 1974 in G. Sankara Pillai's drama Rakshapurushan. The play was staged by the recreation club members of P&T Audit. This helped Gopakumar identify his passion for acting and he found himself being a part of five more plays staged by the club. Towards the late 1970s, a few young aspiring artists in Thiruvananthapuram came together to form an amateur drama troupe named Natyagruham. Gopakumar was one of the founding members of Natyagruham. The troupe that was headed by Narendra Prasad soon became very popular in Thiruvananthapuram. The association with like-minded artists in Natyagruham helped Gopakumar polish his acting skills. During the next 15 years with the troupe, he associated himself with several stage plays that won the accolades of many art-lovers across Kerala.

In 1986, Doordarshan started telecasting tele-films in Malayalam-language under their own production. Kunjayyappan was one of the first Malayalam tele-films produced and telecasted by Doordarshan. Gopakumar played the title role.[2] In 1988, Doordarshan aired a 13-episode television serial Mandan Kunchu. Gopakumar played an important role alongside Nedumudi Venu and Kaviyoor Ponnamma. Gopakumar's professional acting career took off from then and acted in around 100 serials and tele-films.

Gopakumar's first feature film appearance was in the 1989 drama Mathilukal directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The film wan an adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's novel of the same name. Gopakumar played the role of a random prison inmate who explains the story of a hole on the prison wall to his fellow inmate, the lead character, Basheer. His role in Mathilukal was not significant enough to be noticed by many.

Although, Gopakumar's acting prowess did not go unnoticed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan when he happened to watch a stage play that Gopakumar took part in. Adoor Gopalakrishnan called Gopakumar again in 1993, this time to play the title role in Vidheyan, an adaptation of the novel Bhaskara Pattelarum Ente Jeevithavum by Paul Zacharia. This turned out to be the big break that Gopakumar was looking for in his career. His performance in Vidheyan earned him a Kerala State Film Award – Special Jury Award.

In 1999, he won Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actor for his role in Gopalan Nairude Thaadi.