Santosh Sivan

60
Santosh Sivan bigraphy, stories - Indian film director

Santosh Sivan : biography

1961 –

Santosh Sivan (born in Trivandrum, Kerala, India) is an Indian cinematographer, film director, actor and producer known for his extensive work in Indian cinema.

Honored by Government of India with 13 National Awards for outstanding work in various movies.

Santhosh Sivan graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and has to date completed 45 feature films and 41 documentaries. He is a founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC) and is the most awarded Director of Photography (DP) in India. Santosh Sivan became the first Cinematographer in Asia Pacific to be honored with American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) membership. He has been awarded the National Film Awards for Best Cinematography four times, for the films Perumthachan (1991), Kaalapani (1996), Iruvar (1997), and Dil Se.. (1998).

Documentary

Santosh’s documentary FARMERS PORTRAIT for the Govt.of India is near completion. He makes films on health and environment issues, like the Polio campaign with Amitabh Bachchan.

Prarambha (AIDS AWARENESS)

This film won him 2 national awards at the 2007 award ceremony for Best Director and Best picture in the issue based and informative film category. The film dealt with the stigma attached to an HIV + person. It dealt with a little boy who had been ostracized from school only because he is diagnosed with HIV. This film highlighted the plight of the boy and highlighted the ignorance of the society towards this virus. It dealt with the myths surrounding HIV and aimed at educating the masses through an entertaining story weaved around the little boy. This was produced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Aids foundation and was shot entirely in Mysore.

Career

Santosh Sivan, a founder member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers and the most awarded Director of Photography in this country, graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India and went on to completing 45 features and 41 documentaries.

He was awarded the National Award for best Cinematographer for the films Perumthachan (Malayalam/1991), Kalapani (Malayalam / 1996), Mohiniyattam (Malayalam / 1991), Iruvar (Tamil/1998) and Dil Se.. (Hindi/1999).

Sivan was honored by the Japanese Society of Cinematographers and has been on the Jury for the Busan Film Festival. He is a “mentor” to students for Mira Nair’s “Maisha Film Lab: in Uganda and is a director to the Sivan Foundation of photography. He was also a governing council member at the Pune Film Institute.

As a director, Santosh won his first National Award in 1988 for the film THE STORY OF TIBLU. His film HALO (Hindi / 1995) was honored at the 43rd National Film Awards in India (1996) for Best Children’s Film and Best Sound.

Late 1999s and present

Sivan received worldwide accolades for The Terrorist (presented by John Malkovich), which won the Best Director, Best Actress Awards and the Golden Pyramid Award for The Best Film at the 23rd Cairo International Film Festival. It was awarded the National Award (1999) for The Best Tamil Film and was an Official Selection at the Sundance, Seattle and Toronto Film Festivals of that year. The film was also listed in Roger Ebert’s 100 Best Films (1999). the film was Quoted as being "a film scripted by the camera"

Following the success of The Terrorist, Sivan’s film MALLI won the National Award for Best Environmental Film in India (2000), the National Award in India for Best Child Artist (2000) and was honored at the 18th International Festival of Film for Children in Poznan, Poland where it won the Poznan Goat for Best Director, Best Child Actress & Best Music and the Best Film-Audience Award at the Indian Film Festival|Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in Los Angeles.

Sivan’s subsequent films include ASOKA, which screened at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals (2001) and Navarasa, which won the National Award for Best Tamil Film (2004) and the Monaco Award for Best Film & Best Supporting Actor awarded at the Lyons Film Festival. The latter also participated in the Pusan and Rotterdam Film Festivals. His debut Malayalam Language film, Anandabhadram (2005), went on to win several State Awards, including Best Director & Best Cinematographer. Sivan has worked as the Cinematographer in Gurinder Chadha’s Bride & Prejudice (2004) and Paul Mayeda Berges’ The Mistress of Spices (2005).