Murali Nair was born in 1966 to a farming family in a little village called Anandapuram in Thrissur district of Kerala. His father Krishnan Nair worked in a private company in Mumbai and mother Saradamma is a retired school teacher. After school he spent five years in Kerala and Madras Universities getting an MSc in Geology.

For a brief while he worked as a geologist in Kerala. But his passion for cinema made him leave the job and travel all the way to Mumbai, the city of dreams. "I wanted to study direction, Yet, I didn't want to spend three years at the Pune Film Institute. To get a job and then get into the film industry was my dream," says Murali.

After working in a private firm for a brief while, Murali joined evening classes for direction at St. Xavier's Institute of Communication (XIC). He dropped out of the course but not before befriending Bollywood director Pawan Kaul and became an assistant to him for the Hindi film Chand Aur Chor, which had Pooja Bhatt and Aditya Pancholi as lead performers.

Murali also had a stint as an assistant director for several advertisement films. He also assisted in the work of the popular Hindi serial Chandrakanta, a period, which according to him "was a very enriching experience." In 1993, Murali made a black and white short film. It was his first independent venture and it bagged the national award for the best short film.

Following a stint with Mani Kaul in 'Cloud Doors', Murali made his second short film 'Coronations'. It was really with his third short film 'Oru Neenda Yatra' (a long journey) that Murali began to get noticed. It was screened in the short film section of the Cannes festival becoming the first Indian short film to get the honour. That year, Murali also got an offer in an Indo-Argentine joint venture Unicorn directed by Pablo Caesar.

A scene from Maransimhasanam

At Cannes

The crowning glory for Murali of course was Camera d'Or for 'Maranasimhasanam' (1999). Following this, Murali, who is now London based, directed a 13 part series called First Taste exploring the life of teenagers in various countries and cultures and a 10 part series Miracles of Faith examining the effects of miracles in people's lives in different countries all over the world, both for Channel 5 in UK.

In November 2000, he commenced work on Oru Pattiyude Divasam (Day of the Dog). The film, 90 minutes long, is based on an original screenplay and was shot in Moncombu village of Kuttanadu Region of Allepey in Kerala. It has been selected under the section, 'Un Certain Regard' (A certain look) of the 52nd Cannes festival.

At a Calcutta film festival, he met Preeya, then a student at The National Film & Television School in England. They were soon married and the couple has a daughter, Maya. Preeya hails from Hyderabad and is now engaged as a TV director in London. In 1996, they set up a production company called Flying Elephant Films.

One of his future projects is Arimpara, a film based on litterateur OV Vijayan's celebrated short story, a satire on dictatorship.