Kalaripayattu in popular culture

Kalaripayattu is an Indian martial art developed in present-day Kerala in the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. It is featured in several films, television, literature, video games, comics and other media.^[1]

Films

Year	Title	Language
1961	Unniyarcha	Malayalam
1962	Palattu Koman	Malayalam
1964	Thacholi Othenan	Malayalam
1972	Aromalunni	Malayalam
1974	Thacholi Marumakan Chanthu	Malayalam
1977	Kannappanunni	Malayalam
1978	Thacholi Ambu	Malayalam
1978	Ondanondu Kaladalli	Kannada
1977	Maamaankam	Malayalam
1982	Padayottam	Malayalam
1989	Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha	Malayalam
1990	Kadathanadan Ambadi	Malayalam
1992	Yoddha	Malayalam
1995	Thacholi Varghese Chekavar	Malayalam
1996	Indian	Tamil
2001	Asoka	Hindi
2002	Puthooram Puthri Unniyarcha	Malayalam
2005	The Myth^[2]	Chinese
2007	The Last Legion	English
2010	Mansara	Telugu
2011	7aum Arivu	Tamil
2011	Urumi	Malayalam
2012	Arjun: The Warrior Prince^[3]	Hindi
2013	Commando	Hindi
2016	Baaghi	Hindi
2016	Veeram	Malayalam-Hindi-English
2019	Junglee	Hindi
2019	Mamangam	Malayalam
2019	Athiran	Malayalam
2023	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse^[4]	English

Television

Year	Title	Network	Language	Notes
2004	Seven Deadly Arts with Akshay Kumar	National Geographic	English	Non-fiction miniseries
2006	Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple^[5]	TV Tokyo	Japanese	Japanese manga series
2013–2019	Steven Universe^[5]	Cartoon Network	English	American series
2017–2018	Mahakali — Anth Hi Aarambh Hai	Colors TV	Hindi
2017–2018	Kalari Kids^[6]	Amazon Prime Video	English, Hindi

Documentaries

The Way of the Warrior on BBC^[7]

Video games

Ashwathama — The Immortal^[5]
Soul Edge^[5]
Death Battle^[5]
Tekken^[5]

Comics

Agari (2019), Japanese manga.^[8]
Odayan^[9]
Odayan II – Yuddham^[9]
Alita - Battle Angele

Music videos

Higher by Just Blaze and Baauer, featuring Jay-Z; directed by Nabil Elderkin.

References

^ "Why Bollywood is crazy about 'Kalaripayattu'". News18. 10 April 2013. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
^ Iype, George (7 June 2005). "Jackie Chan and the art of Kalaripayattu". Rediff. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
^ Chaudhri, Arnab (16 May 2012). "Arjun: The Warrior Prince" (Interview). Interviewed by Telegraph Team. Kolkata: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023. For the action, we did a two-week workshop with a Kalaripayattu troupe from Kerala and a Thang-Ta troupe from Manipur — both of which represent very diverse martial art forms. We put them together on a mountaintop for two weeks and made them fight each other. What we got were results that I wouldn't even hope to achieve if I was using live-action actors.
^ Kondo, Nick [@NickTyson] (5 June 2023). "One of the great creative challenges for #AcrossTheSpiderVerse was giving 100s of different Spiders unique motion signatures" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 June 2023 – via Twitter. For Pavitr, we looked to one of the oldest known martial arts, Kalaripayattu(.)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Nair, Shreejaya (12 September 2015). "Comics go the Kalari way". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "Green Gold, Amazon Prime put Kerala martial art on the map". Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "The Way of the Warrior: Kalari, The Indian Way" (Entire Video). YouTube.
^ TNN (25 May 2019). "Kalaripayattu warrior Ravi to be the first Indian character in Manga comic". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b Chhibber, Mini Anthikad (24 August 2014). "An equal music". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2020.

[1] "Why Bollywood is crazy about 'Kalaripayattu'". News18. 10 April 2013. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.

[2] Iype, George (7 June 2005). "Jackie Chan and the art of Kalaripayattu". Rediff. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2019.

[3] Chaudhri, Arnab (16 May 2012). "Arjun: The Warrior Prince" (Interview). Interviewed by Telegraph Team. Kolkata: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023. For the action, we did a two-week workshop with a Kalaripayattu troupe from Kerala and a Thang-Ta troupe from Manipur — both of which represent very diverse martial art forms. We put them together on a mountaintop for two weeks and made them fight each other. What we got were results that I wouldn't even hope to achieve if I was using live-action actors.

[4] Kondo, Nick [@NickTyson] (5 June 2023). "One of the great creative challenges for #AcrossTheSpiderVerse was giving 100s of different Spiders unique motion signatures" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 June 2023 – via Twitter. For Pavitr, we looked to one of the oldest known martial arts, Kalaripayattu(.)

[DC-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Nair, Shreejaya (12 September 2015). "Comics go the Kalari way". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2020.

[6] "Green Gold, Amazon Prime put Kerala martial art on the map". Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2017.

[7] Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "The Way of the Warrior: Kalari, The Indian Way" (Entire Video). YouTube.

[8] TNN (25 May 2019). "Kalaripayattu warrior Ravi to be the first Indian character in Manga comic". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2020.

[Odayan-9] Chhibber, Mini Anthikad (24 August 2014). "An equal music". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2020.

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