Aryadan Shoukath

Aryadan Shoukath is an Indian filmmaker and a politician. He had achieved awards both as a producer and a local politician. He had been around for 14 years of filmmaking. His father Aryadan Muhammed is a prominent political figure. Aryadan Muhammed is one of Kerala’s most senior Indian National Congress leaders (former Kerala State Minister of electricity). He graduated in Bachelor of Sciences from Marivanios College at Trivandrum in Kerala, India.

He is an active socio-religious reformer and ardently believes in religious tolerance as well as is deeply concerned with the social upliftment of the tribal people. He had initiated several pioneering programs in various fields such as health and education. In Nilambur Municipality (formerly panchayat) of Kerala, he is the highest prolific political and cultural personality.

Under his presidency, the state government awarded the Kerala’s best panchayat award to then Nilambur panchayat, and presently he is the chairman of the Nilambur Municipality. In 2003, he debuted as a film producer with a Malayalam movie named as Padam Onnu: Oru Vilapam (in English it is “Lesson one: A Wail”) based on the unorthodoxy of Muslims regarding girls’ education. Later on, the film went on to earn 15 awards including Kerala State Film Award, two National Film Awards The National Film Awards gets presented every year >> Read More... for Best Actress and Best Film (on family welfare), Asianet Film Award for Best Actress and Best Asian Film Award at Madrid Film Festival. His another venture as a producer and story writer- Vilapangalkkappuram (English: “Beyond the Wail”), a 2009 Malayalam film based on a girl’s escape on the fallout of Gujarat riots of 2002 once again earned him Kerala State Film Awar

d. In a Malayalam talk show Nammal Tammil (English: Between ourselves) which dealt with a sensitive issue from Mysore of compelled marriages of Muslim girls by the men in their family, Shoukath shared about his helplessness from preventing a forceful marriage of a girl even though he was the president of Nilambur panchayat. He told that there are around 80% of married girls under the age of 15 years in his village. In the February month of 2015 following the murder of a woman named Radha at the Congress block committee office at Nilambur, a political controversy aroused around Aryadan Shoukath and his father, Aryadan Muhammed. In 2016, Aryadan Shoukath failed to continue his father’s legacy of representing Nilambur in the State Legislative Assembly for a record of eight times. He represented Nilambur constituency in Malappuram as a UDF candidate for the contest but lost it by 11504 votes to his LDF opponent PV Anwar of the CPI(M).