Early works

Jeethu Joseph started as an assistant director to Jayaraj in the film Bheebhathsam. After that, he got a chance to direct a film starring Dileep but it did not materialize and he was back where he started.^[9] Meanwhile, Jeethu developed the one-line plot of Detective. But after failing to find any producers, his mother Leelamma Joseph offered to co-produce the film, which became his debut directorial. A month into the project, a producer evinced interest and took on the production. Detective was released in 2007. The film fared well at the box-office.^[9]

His next film Mummy & Me was a success at the box-office. Mummy and Me, although it took close to three years in the making, marked a turning point in his career as director. "My first film was easy compared to the struggle I had to go through for my second, Mummy and Me." There were offers to make films like Detective, but Jeethu declined. "I wanted to do a different film" It was for this reason that, though he had one line scripts of Mummy and Me and Memories ready in 2008, he chose to make Mummy and Me.^[9]

His third film My Boss was also a success in theatres. Jeethu's fourth movie Memories, a suspense thriller, was released in 2013 which did well in box office.^[10][11]

Post Drishyam

Towards the end of 2013, the drama-thriller Drishyam starring Mohanlal was released, which was well received critically and commercially. It was the highest-grossing Malayalam film, until 2016, and the first Malayalam film to cross ₹50 crore mark at the box office.^{[3][9][12][13]} Drishyam was remade in Tamil by Jeethu with Kamal Haasan enacting Mohanlal's role. It was also remade to Telugu, Kannada and Hindi by other directors.^[12] Jeethu then directed Dileep-starrer Life of Josutty.