P. Subramaniam

Subramaniam continued to produce films until he died on 4 October 1979, at the age of 69. Now his company is run by his children. Merryland later was popular for remaking their old film Swami Ayyappan in TV serial format.

Subramaniam's films were also popular for their songs. Thirunainar Kurichi Madhavan Nair and Br Lakshmanan were the duo which created the songs during their early days. Subramaniam was also instrumental in developing the career of the popular singer Kamukara Purushothaman. In almost all Merryland films until 1970, the trio was used to add music. The songs like 'Athmavidyalayame', 'Eeswara Chinthayithonne', 'Naale Naale Ennayittu', etc. are very popular songs from this team. Later on, he also used lyricists like P. Bhaskaran, Vayalar Ramavarma, O. N. V. Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, etc. and musicians like G. Devarajan, M. S. Baburaj, V. Dakshinamoorthy and M. B. Sreenivasan.

He contributed significantly to the Malayalam cinema, by starting cinema exhibition houses, distribution ventures, a film studio and a production company for making films with both devotional and social themes. His venture Merryland Studio (established in 1951) was the second film production studio of Kerala, after its major competitor Udaya Studio. The films were produced under the banner Neela Productions.

Subramaniam later joined director K. Subramaniam as his assistant. It was in 1951 that he started producing films, when he started Merryland Studio in Thiruvananthapuram. Neela Productions, his production company, was named after his mother Neelammal. Named after Lord Subramanya and being a devotee himself, he used his namesake's picture as the studio emblem. His first film was Aathmasakhi, released in 1952. It was the first released film of the legendary actor Sathyan, who later became one of the greatest actors ever in the Malayalam film industry.

From mid-1950s to late 1970s, he produced 69 films of which 59 films were directed by himself. His Kumara Sambhavam won the first ever Kerala State Film Award for Best Film. His 1958 film Randidangazhi received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam . He contributed the proceedings from his 1975 film Swami Ayyappan for the development of Sabarimala shrine in Kerala, where he constructed a road named Swamy Ayyappan Road.

P. Subramaniam (19 February 1910 – 4 October 1979) was an Indian film producer, film director, distributor, theatre owner, and mayor. He is the founder of Merryland Studio (established in 1951), the second film studio in Kerala.

P. Subramaniam was born to Padmanabha Pillai and Neelammal in Nagercoil, (present-day Kanyakumari District) on 19 February 1910. He joined college in Thiruvananthapuram for his intermediate course. He, however, did not complete the course as he got posted as a clerk in Trivandrum Water Works, the water authority.