What is the story about?
Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups has made Geetu Mohandas one of the most talked-about filmmakers in Indian cinema. For her, the Yash-starrer is a massive
change in her career as she transitions from acclaimed Malayalam independent cinema to a big-budget pan-India action film. Toxic also stars Kiara Advani, Nayanthara, Huma Qureshi, Tara Sutaria, and Rukmini Vasanth. It release to mixed reviews on August 26, and managed to leave a huge impression at the box office on its opening day. But even before Toxic, Gayathri Das aka Geetu Mohandas already had an impressive career as an actor, writer, producer and director.
Geetu Mohandas' career before Toxic
Born as Gayathri Mohandas, she made her entry into the Malayalam film industry as a child artiste. She debuted in 1986 with Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare, at the age of just five. She won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist for her performance. She later appeared in a number of Malayalam films before taking on adult roles. Her films include Life Is Beautiful, Thenkasipattanam, Valkannadi, Akale, Nala Damayanthi, Rappakal and Seetha Kalyanam. For her performance in Akale she won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Malayalam). Her last acting role was Nammal Thammil in 2009.
From acting to direction
Finally, Geetu turned her gaze behind the camera. In 2009, she started her own production house, Unplugged and made the short film Kelkkunnundo (Are You Listening?). The film was premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and was internationally recognised and even won a National Film Award.
Her biggest break as a filmmaker came with her feature directorial debut, Liar's Dice, in 2013. The film, starring Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, travelled to major international festivals, won multiple awards and was conferred with two National Film Awards. It was also chosen as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 87th Academy Awards.
Moothon cemented her position as a filmmaker
Geetu followed Liar's Dice with Moothon, featuring Nivin Pauly. The Malayalam film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 and also opened the MAMI film festival that year. The project was supported by the Sundance Film Lab, and in 2016 Geetu won the Global Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Moothon was quite unlike the sort of mainstream spectacle she is now doing with Toxic. Its intimate storytelling, complex characters and social themes established Geetu’s reputation as a filmmaker with a unique voice.
Geetu Mohandas is the wife of renowned cinematographer and director Rajiv Ravi. The couple has a daughter.
Geetu's association with Yash
Toxic is Geetu's first collaboration with Yash. It became significant because Yash chose her to direct the project despite coming from a very different filmmaking background. The decision was said to have come as a surprise to some in the industry. Telugu producer Dil Raju shared that he initially thought that Yash had "gone mad" to choose Geetu to do such a big project but changed his mind after seeing the visuals of the film.
Yash also spoke about the support he received from Geetu during the making of Toxic. Infact, the collaboration is interesting because Geetu's previous films were intimate, character-driven narratives, whereas Toxic places her behind one of India's biggest stars and a massive commercial production.
