Mohanlal is known to be a director's delight.

Here, the superstar lists some of his favourite directors:

Fazil

Fazil was my first director. I have not made too many films with him, just about seven or eight. Yet, he is very close to me. He will also direct my next film.

He is a director who gives importance to the story. He believes in storytelling. And he has the magic to tell a story beautifully.

Priyadarshan

He was my senior in school and college. So our friendship started long, long ago. From Poochakkoru Mookuthi to Hungama, he has only risen. His films are getting better and better. He is a very ambitious director.

He is more interested in the technical aspects of filmmaking, unlike Fazil. He likes to make his films look beautiful and technically brilliant.

I have done nearly 30 films with Priyan. Even after 25 years, filmmaking is like a picnic to us. Some of our films like Chitram, Kilukkam, Poochakkoru Mookuthi, Thenmavin Kombathu were huge, huge hits. Chitram ran for a year!

Sibi Malayil

He made some of my memorable films, like His Highness Abdullah, Bharatham, Kireedam and Kamaladhalam. Kamaladhalam is one of his better films. I played a classical dancer for the first time in this film. I don't know dancing and was unsure how I would look on screen. But Sibi was very confident. So also Lohitadas, who wrote the story.

Padmarajan
He was my favourite! I have seen all the films made by him. I don't think any other filmmaker made films on subjects as diverse as he did. That could be because he was a short-story writer and novelist first, then a filmmaker.

He was not bothered about the making of the film; he wove magic on screen with his stories. They were all astonishingly successful. I don't know whether we will have writers or directors like him in future.

G Aravindan

Vaasthuhara was a turning point in my career.

Sync sound was unheard of in Malayalam, when we shot the sound of Vaasthuhara live on location. The film looked different because it was based in Kolkata during the days of the freedom struggle. The story had a magical quality. It was very painful to watch a fiery, committed woman like Neena Gupta, who played my Bengali cousin in the film, break down in the end.

I think that is one of the most poetic picturisations of love.

Because Aravindan passed away before the release of the film, it did not get the kind of recognition it deserved.

We had drawn close much before we started shooting Vaasthuhara. As the shooting progressed, we had started planning our next film together. I even offered to produce the film. Unfortunately, he passed away immediately afterwards. People like Aravindan are not born every day.

Celebrating Mohanlal