Kerala or Keralam /ˈkɛrələ/ is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was formed on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions.

The state has an area of 38,863 km² (15,005 sq mi) and is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Arabian Sea on the west. Thiruvananthapuram is the state capital. Kochi and Kozhikode are other major cities. According to a survey by The Economic Times, five out of ten best cities to live in India are located in Kerala.

Kerala has the highest Human Development Index in India, higher than that of most developed countries The state has the highest literacy rate in India with 93.91 percent. It hopes to be the first e-literate state in India through the state run Akshaya project. The state recently became and is currently the only one to have banking facilities in every village. A survey conducted in 2005 by Transparency International ranked Kerala as the least corrupt state in the country. Kerala is also ranked as India's cleanest state. Kerala has witnessed significant migration of its people, especially to the Persian Gulf countries during the Kerala Gulf boom and is heavily dependent on remittances from its large Malayali expatriate community.

Prithviraj Sukumaran (born 16 October 1982 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) credited mononymously as Prithviraj, is an Indian film actor and producer best known for his work in Malayalam cinema.

He made his debut in 2002 in the Malayalam film Nandanam, and has since acted in more than sixty films, notably Stop Violence (2002), Swapnakoodu (2003), Akale (2004), Classmates (2006), Vaasthavam (2006), Chocolate (2007), Thirakkatha (2008), Santosh Sivan's Urumi (2011) and Indian Rupee (2011). He won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Vaasthavam.

Prithviraj made his debut in Tamil cinema through Kana Kandaen in 2005. His other notable films in Tamil are Parijatham (2005), Mozhi (2007) and Mani Ratnam's Raavanan (2010). His debut in Telugu films was through Police Police in 2010. Prithviraj is debuting in Hindi films through Aiyaa (2012) for which shooting is currently progressing.

As a producer he started his production company, August Cinema, along with Santosh Sivan and Shaji Natesan. August cinema has produced the films Urumi and Indian Rupee.