Ajayan, also known as Thoppil Ajayan, (8 April 1950 – 13 December 2018) was a Malayalam film director who is of note for his only feature film Perumthachan (The Master Carpenter). The film received positive reviews from critics worldwide. For this film, Ajayan won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director and Kerala State Film Award for Best Debut Director in 1990. The film also won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Popular Film in 1990 and was nominated for the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1992. He died on 13 December 2018.