Krishnan Nair (July 25, 1939 – November 16, 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan was an Indian film actor, former sailor, stunt performer and 1970s style icon. He worked in Malayalam cinema, a sector of the Indian movie industry.

During his film career, he was primarily an action star and was particularly famous for his macho image and unique style. He was reputed for his chauvinistic appeal, masculine persona and well known for performing stunts of dangerous nature on his own.

By late 1970s, he became the most popular lead actor and commercial superstar of malayalam film industry and has been acclaimed as the first action hero of Malayalam cinema.

Jayan was an Indian Navy Officer before he came to films and rose to fame as an actor in a very short time, appearing as an action hero in numerous films during the 1970s. He died at the age of 41, at the peak of his popularity, as a result of an accident while filming a dangerous stuntinvolving a flying helicopter that crashed while he was hanging on to it.

He has since then become a legendary symbol of daredevilry and masculinity with numerous inspirations, imitations, his unfading popularity being widely used to promote newage movies, actors and brands and an evergrowing fanbase spanning generations.

His superhuman image has also transformed him into an iconic figure of popular culture among malayalees around the world with widespread impersonation on stage and television programs based on his screen persona.

It was accompanied by a cartoon, email and SMS phenomenon in early 2000s, portraying him as a comic superhero with unique quotes of superhuman strength attributed to the action star becoming widespread.

These movements were fueled by a renewed fascination with his style of dialogue delivery and his machismo image. These were claimed to honour his memories but were also criticised for parodying the legendary actor years after his death.

A film titled Avatharam presently under production, is attempting to bring back his screen persona using advanced technologies. A documentary on Jayan’s life and death Jayan - The Man behind the Legend is nearing completion for release on the occasion of his 31st death anniversary.

Jayan was born in Kollam, Travancore as the first child of his father Thevalli, Kottaram Veetil Madhavan Pillai and mother Bharathiyamma. His birthname was Krishnan Nair. He had a younger brother named Soman Nair. Jayan’s formal education ended at 10th grade at Kollam Govt. Boys High School when he joined the Indian Navy.

The first accolades for his acting skills reached him when he was a naval sailor. He used to act in plays at various functions like anniversaries. The encouragement from his friends and colleagues in the Navy gave him the desire to act in films.

Jayan served in the Indian Navy for 16 years, culminating in the rank of Master CPO. By the end of his navy days he had begun efforts to start small businesses at Ernakulam and became a regular inhabitant of the Cochin Tourist Home.

During his life at Ernakulam he would meet some of his lifelong friends. It was such a chance meeting while on leave, with Rajan Matthew who is the veteran Malayalam actor Jose Prakash’s son, who owned a dry cleaning shop in Cochin, that eventually landed him a role in the movie Shapa Moksham.

An year later, he left the Indian Navy and started trying his hand at various civilian jobs, working for companies in Cochin for a few years till his acting career began to yield. Jayan did make a few random uncredited appearances in some movies of the early 1970s first of which was in Post Mane Kanmanilla.

These minor appearances were before he attained the screen name Jayan. According to his nephew, he had the role of a vampire like character in an unnamed project costarred by Vidhubala, which was never released. His first appearance with the name Jayan was in the movie Shapa Moksham which is usually credited as his first film.

The name “Jayan” (English: “The Victor”) was given to him by veteran Malayalam actor Jose Prakash on the sets of Shapa Moksham. Jayan started his career by acting in minor roles starting with Shapa Moksham (1974). Jayan got his first major break appearing as a villain character inPanchami (1976) playing the role of a forest ranger.

Jayan’s performance in this film was appreciated in the industry and his physical appearance was also noticed for the first time. His next notable role was in Thacholi Ambu (1978) in which he appeared in a supporting role.

In the same year, he acted as a sage in the Sreekumaran Thampi film Etho Oru Swapnam which was well received by critics. But what made Jayan a superstar was his antihero role inSharapancharam (1979, Bed of Arrows).

He catapulted to fame riding on machismo roles that endeared him to the masses, and he established himself as one of the most popular malayalam film actors of his time. He is generally regarded as the first action hero in Malayalam cinema.

Sharapancharam broke all records set in the malayalam industry till its time and became the highest grosser of 1979. Its records were broken by another Jayan film Angadi (Market) in the following year which cemented his popularity among the masses.

In films likeManushya Mrugam, Aavesham etc. he played double roles. During his career, he received only a few critically appreciated roles perhaps partly due to his commercial hero image and partly due to the lack of films that garnered critical appreciation at the time.

The focus was always on his unmatched drawing power as an action star and by 1980, at the peak of his career, he had attained a genuine superhero image. Movies exploited Jayan’s masculine physique and he appeared bare-chested in numerous scenes.

His on-screen attire (most famously his Elvis bellbottoms), his masculine image and later the nature of his death transformed him into a legend in Kerala. Jayan was also known for his unique method of dialogue delivery and he has contributed many memorable lines to the Malayalam film history.

Jayan acted in several multistar movies mostly with Prem Nazir. The duo acted in films like Nayattu, Love in Singapore,Chandrahasam,Thacholi Ambu, Kannappanunni, Palattu Kunjikkannan, Mamangam, Prabhu etc. all of which were top grossers at the box office. He also acted with other popular actors of the time like Soman, Sukumaran and Madhu in many films.

In early films before 1979 (like Thacholi Ambuand Panchami) he had negative or supporting roles. But later films in the late 1970s relied heavily on Jayan’s drawing power as an action hero and placed him as the central character with other popular actors including Prem Nazir shifting to supporting roles.

This became more evident in later films of Jayan-Nazir duo like Love in Singapore when the primary focus shifted to Jayan’s character instead of early films that were based around characters played by Prem Nazir.
On 16 November 1980, Jayan was killed in an accident on the set of the movie Kolilakkam.

The climax scene of the movie was being filmed in Sholavaram, near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Jayan always performed his own stunts, and for this movie he was performing a particularly dangerous stunt that involved him climbing aboard a flying helicopter from a moving motorbike.
The shot was accepted by the director in the first take; altogether three shots were filmed.

According to the film’s production executive, Jayan insisted on yet another re-take as he was not satisfied with its perfection. During the re-take, the helicopter lost its balance and crashed along with Jayan, who later succumbed to his injuries.

After his death was confirmed, a slide was added during the theatre show of his movie Deepamwhich was running in packed houses, informing his death to the viewers who witnessed it with absolute shock and disbelief.

A large number of his fans burst into tears and ran out of the buildings while many continued to watch the movie, refusing to believe it and taking it for a genius promotion for some upcoming project.
Some conspiracy theories emerged regarding the circumstances of his death, primarily because the pilot and his co-star Balan K. Nair, who was in the helicopter, survived with minor or no injuries. Nevertheless, it has been confirmed as a genuine accident.

After Jayan’s death, several films were released claiming to be his last film, including the genuine one, Kolilakkam. In all these films Jayan’s voice was dubbed by Aleppey Ashraf, a popular mimicry artist of the time. Many projects meant for him were recast like “Thusharam” by I.V.Sasi, P.G. Vishwambaran’s “Sphodanam” and Sasi Kumar’s “DhruvaSangamam”.

Numerous other projects were cancelled entirely. One stunt scene and two songs were already shot with Jayan for C.V.Hariharans “Garjanam”. But after his death it was recast with Rajanikanth becoming his second film in Malayalam released in 1981.

Due to his unrivalled popularity that continued many years after his death, random bit scenes were added to numerous films that showed random gestures or shots of him walking by the side during fight scenes. Attempts were made to bring in imposters who tried to imitate his style and mannerisms enabling several artists from the field of mimicry to show up in the big screen.

But these experiments failed miserably and proved especially ineffective in fight and stunt scenes. Then directors and producers started a search for new actors to replace him.

This movement led to debuts of actors who resembled Jayan in physical appearance (like Ratheesh), those with stage names sounding similar to his (like for example, his own brother who came as Ajayan) and those with similar mannerisms and style (like Bheeman Raghu). One of them, who started with the stage name Sajin, would later go on to become one of the popular future stars in the industry.

However all these attempts to replace Jayan with a new star with a smilar image yielded disappointing results. It is now one of the most popular quotations in Malayalam cinema that “Jayan’s throne remains vacant and will forever be so”.

In the late 1990s and early 21st century, there was a resurgence of Jayan’s screen persona in Kerala and his old movie scenes came to prominence again.

It owed mostly to programs by popular mimicry stage artists in the State, whose imitations of the star’s mannerisms caught on and soon became commonplace in college stage events, television programs and mimicry stage shows along with quotes of superhuman strength known as Jayan quotes.

However it has been pointed out that many grotesquely imitated screen dialogues of Jayan are not actually his, but that of dubbing artist Aleppey Ashraf who dubbed for many of his characters after his death.

The “come back” of Jayan and his renewed popularity lately may taken as an affirmation that Jayan has not been replaced even nearly three decades after his death. Today Jayan is best remembered as the first and best action star of Malayalam cinema, so far, besides his trademark colourful attire, risky stunts, machismo mannerisms and unique speaking style.

He has rightly won immortality in the hearts of the Malayalam film fans as a martyr in his yearning to thrill and entertain them even by putting his life at stake. Madhu, a famous actor prominent in the 60s, once stated in an interview, “Jayan will forever be young and alive. No one can ever visualise him as an old man.”
(News agency)