Major Ravi

Major A. K. Raveendran SM (born 13 June 1958) is a retired officer of the Indian Army and former National Security Guard commando. He was awarded the President's gallantry medal in 1991 and 1992 for his contributions in fighting terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir.^[1] After retiring from the army, he began his career in Indian cinema as a consultant for military-based films. He made his independent directorial debut in 2006 with Keerthi Chakra for which he won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Screenplay.^[2]

Family

Major Ravi was born to P. Kuttisankaran Nair, who was a soldier in the Indian Army and A. T. Satyabhama.^[3] He is married to Anitha. The couple has a son Arjun Ravi.

Military career

He joined the army after his schooling and later pursued his studies within the army and graduated from the Army Cadet College to become an officer in Dec 1984. He served in the Indian Army as a commando in the National Security Guards, as Aide-de-camp (ADC) to the then chief of Indian Army General Sunith Francis Rodrigues PVSM, VSM and as an officer in the Indian Military Intelligence in the Andaman and Nicobar islands and Jammu and Kashmir.^[4] He was head of the mission code-named Operation One Eyed Jack to capture suspects of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination (the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam on 21 May 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu).^[5] His military tenure of four years in the National Security Guard as a commando inspired him to direct Keerthi Chakra (2006) and Mission 90 Days (2007).^[6] At the time of his retirement from the Indian Army, his rank was Major.

Film career

After serving for about two decades in the Indian Army, he became a military consultant for Indian films. He has worked with Indian film makers Priyadarshan, Rajkumar Santoshi, Kamal Haasan, and Mani Ratnam.^[7] He made a children's film, Toofan in Hindi in 1999, starring Dileep and Saba Khan,^[8] which had a delayed release in 2010, due to censoring issues. It was dubbed into Malayalam as Oru Avadhikaalam. His first feature film was Keerti Chakra, a film on Kashmir militancy.^[9]

His second movie Mission 90 Days was his own experience of the mission to capture the suspects of Rajiv Gandhi murder case.^[10] His third project Kurukshetra based on the Kargil war starring Mohanlal was a sequel to Keerthi Chakra.^[11] The 2010 film Kandahar was a third installment to the Major Mahadevan film series.

In 2012, he directed Karma Yodha with Mohanlal. In 2015, Picket 43, starring Prithviraj and Javed Jaffery was made. It turned out to be a hit. He is now heading towards a fourth installment in the Major Mahadevan series. About the film he quoted: "The focus will be on the individuals rather than the war, and will portray the relationships that are forged during the war."^[12]

Filmography

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
Year	Title	Director	Writer	Actor	Notes
1999	Megham			Template:Yes
1999	Kamasutra			Template:Yes
2000	Sradha			Template:Yes
2000	Pukar			Template:Yes	Hindi film
2000	Snegithiye			Template:Yes	Bilingual film (Malayalam and Tamil)
2001	Aalavandhan			Template:Yes	Tamil film
2002	Onnaman			Template:Yes
2002	Punarjani	Template:Yes	Template:Yes		Co-director
2003	Lesa Lesa			Template:Yes	Tamil film
2003	Pattalam			Template:Yes
2006	Keerthi Chakra	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2007	Raakilipattu			Template:Yes
2007	Mission 90 Days	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2008	Kurukshetra	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2010	Toofan	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Hindi film
2010	Kandahar	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2012	Karma Yodha	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2013	Oru Yathrayil	Template:Yes	Template:Yes		Segments Amma and I Love My Appa
2015	Picket 43	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2015	Anarkali			Template:Yes
2016	Action Hero Biju			Template:Yes
2016	Marubhoomiyile Aana			Template:Yes
2017	Lavakusha			Template:Yes
2017	1971: Beyond Borders	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2019	Driving License			Template:Yes
2020	Varane Avashyamund			Template:Yes
2021	The Last Two Days			Template:Yes
2021	Oru Thathvika Avalokanam			Template:Yes
2022	Santacruz			Template:Yes	Filming
2022	Mei Hoom Moosa			Template:Yes

Television

Year	Show	Role	Channel
2018–2019	Unarunna Keralam	Host	Amrita TV
2020-2021	Flowers students startup	Judge	Flowers TV
2021	Charithram Enniloode	Narrator	Safari TV
2021-2022	Beautiful Minds	Host	Behindwoods ICE