Kozhikode (Kerala), March 10 - Comedian Jagathy Sreekumar, a veteran of over 1,000 Malayalam films, was seriously hurt in a road accident in the wee hours of Saturday and has been admitted to a private hospital here, police said.

Speaking to reporters, Venugopal, chief of the 10 member panel of doctors treating the ace comedian, said he suffered multiple injuries.

'He has injuries in the neck, chest, abdomen and and if necessary he will have to undergo a surgery. He has been put on ventilator,' said Venugopal.

Jagathy, 62, has acted in more than 1,000 Malayalam films.

The accident occurred near the Kozhikode University campus around 4.30 a.m, when the Innova car carrying him hit a divider, police said. The driver of the car escaped with minor injuries, while the actor was badly hurt, police said.

Jagathy was on his way from Thrissur to Coorg in Karnataka to join the location of director Lenin Rajendran's latest film.

With the accident, more than a dozen films in Malayalam which are under various stages of production will be affected.