Christo Tomy

Christo’s breakthrough project is the documentary Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case.

An alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Calcutta, writer-director Christo Tomy graduated in 2016 having already won two of India’s National Film Awards for his short films, Kanyaka (Virgin, 2013) and Kamuki (Sweetheart, 2015), made as part of his course. His first major project was directing the gripping Netflix true crime documentary feature, Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case (2023). The film explores the shocking case of the murder of six people, allegedly committed by Jolly Joseph over a 14-year period in Kerala, with Christo telling the story through a mix of key archival news footage and emotional talking heads of the stakeholders in the case. It attracted international attention, with 10 million views garnered within three weeks of its release and a recurring spot in Netflix’s Global top 10.

His next feature as both director and writer proved to be just as engaging. Inspired by real events, the family drama Ullozhukku (Undercurrent, 2023) was released in the cinemas earlier this year and is now streaming on Amazon Prime India. The script had earlier won the Cinestaan India’s Storytellers Script Contest in 2018, subsequently earning Christo the backing of producers Ronnie Screwvala, Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey and the cast of Parvathy Thiruvothu and Urvashi. The project was also selected for the Global Media Makers Fellowship by Film Independent and the US State Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The film went on to win three Kerala State Film Awards.
Christo is currently preparing to direct a high-profile fiction series in Hindi for a major OTT platform.

In their own words…

“I’m excited and grateful to be a BAFTA Breakthrough. It couldn’t have happened at a better time as two of my recently released feature projects have been received well. I always wanted to take my stories to the world and I believe that BAFTA Breakthrough is the right platform. I am sure that BAFTA will help me build collaborations across the world and realise my dream of directing exciting international productions.”