Samrajyam

Samrajyam (transl. Empire) is a 1990 Indian Malayalam-language gangster film directed by Jomon. The film stars Mammootty as Alexander, a powerful underworld don. It narrates the story of his rise and fall in the criminal world. The supporting cast includes Madhu, Captain Raju, Ashokan, Vijayaraghavan and Srividya.

During the making of 1921 (1988), Mammootty and Jomon, who was then working as an assistant director, discussed a story idea developed by Jomon based on organised crime and the mafia. Impressed by the concept, Mammootty encouraged Jomon to expand it into a full-fledged script. He later introduced Jomon to Shibu Chakravarthy on the sets of No.20 Madras Mail (1990), and the two developed the screenplay over several brainstorming sessions. The film features no songs, only a background score composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while cinematography was handled by Jaynan Vincent.

Samrajyam was released on 22 June 1990 to positive reviews and became a commercial success, running in theatres for 25 weeks. The dubbed Telugu version was released in Andhra Pradesh, where it achieved significant success. Initially distributed with about ten prints, it later expanded to around 400 prints due to strong demand from theatres.

A sequel titled Samrajyam II: Son of Alexander, starring Unni Mukundan, was released in 2015.