Shaji Neelakantan Karun is an Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film Piravi (1988) won the Caméra d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the premiere chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the first academy for film and TV in India and was also the executive chairman of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) from 1998 to 2001. He is best known for his award-winning films Piravi (1988), Swaham (1994), Vanaprastham (1999) and Kutty Srank (2009). He won the National Award for Best Director for his debut film Piravi. He also won two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Director for his films Swaham and Vanaprastham. Currently, he is the Chairman of Kerala State Film Development Corporation.
Santosh Sivan is an Indian cinematographer, film director, producer and actor known for his works in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi cinema. Santosh graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India and has, to date, completed 55 feature films and 50 documentaries. He is regarded as one of India's finest and best cinematographers. He is the recipient of the Pierre Angénieux Excellens in Cinematography, twelve National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards, four Kerala State Film Awards, and three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
K. R. Mohanan born at thiruvathra Chavakadu Thrissur was a Malayalam film director best known for his critically acclaimed works, Ashwathama (1978), Purushartham (1987) and Swaroopam (1992). He studied at the Pune Film Institute. Mohanan was the Chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy from 2006 to 2011 and the Director of International Film Festival of Kerala. He died of serious illness on June 25, 2017, aged 69.
Ravi K. Chandran is an Indian cinematographer and film director who predominantly works in Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil-language cinema. He is the founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC) and has won two Filmfare Awards and one Southern Filmfare Award.
Indian cinematographers work in a number of regional film centres: Mumbai for films in Marathi and Hindi, Hyderabad for Telugu films, Chennai for Tamil films, Kochi for films in Malayalam, Kolkata for Bengali films, Bangalore for Kannada films, etc. Most Indian cinematographers are known for their work with one regional industry. Some cinematographers belong to various professional organisations and trade unions.
Nirav Shah is an Indian cinematographer. He has worked on a number of major box office hits in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam since his debut with the 2004 Hindi film Paisa Vasool.
K. Ramachandra Babu was an Indian cinematographer of over 125 films, out of which most are Malayalam films. He also worked for films in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Arabic and English languages. He served as the cinematographer for several documentaries and advertisement films as well. He was the founder of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC).
Venugopal Pillai, popularly known as Venu, is an Indian cinematographer and film director who works mainly in Malayalam cinema. An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and CMS college Kottayam. He has been the recipient of four National Film Awards, including three for Best Cinematography and one Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director, and four Kerala State Film Awards. He is a founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC).
Amal Neerad is an Indian film director, cinematographer and producer who mainly works in Malayalam cinema. He attended the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. He was awarded the National Film Award for Best Cinematography in 2001 for his diploma film Meena Jha.
Jomon T. JohnISC is an Indian cinematographer and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. Jomon made his debut with Chaappa Kurishu (2011). Jomon won the 2015 Kerala State Film Award for Best Cinematography for the films Nee-Na, Ennu Ninte Moideen, and Charlie.
Girish GangadharanISC is an Indian cinematographer known for his work in Malayalam and Tamil films. He is the recipient of the National Film Award for Best Cinematography for his work in the 2019 film Jallikkattu directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, which was India's official entry to that year's Oscars. Additionally, he has also worked on Tamil-language blockbusters like Sarkar and Vikram.
M. J. Radhakrishnan was an Indian cinematographer working mainly in Malayalam films. He got National film award 2018 as best cinematographer for his work on Malayalam movie Oolu. He won Kerala State Award for Best Cinematography 7 times, equal with Mankada Ravi Varma. Earlier he worked as a still photographer and then as an associate to cinematographer turned director Shaji N. Karun. His important works included Deshadanam (1996), Karunam (1999) Naalu Pennungal (2007), Veettilekkulla Vazhi (2010) and Akasathinte Niram. His films were screened at several prominent film festivals around the world including Cannes, Shanghai, Cairo, Montreal, Telluride, Jeonju, Toronto, Chicago, Rhode Island and Rotterdam. One of his works, Marana Simhasanam, won Caméra d'Or in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Another film Veyilmarangal won Golden Goblet award for Outstanding Artistic achievement at Shanghai International Film Festival 2019. He worked on over 117 feature films and several documentaries and worked with some of the prominent Indian filmmakers including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Murali Nair, Shaji N. Karun, TV Chandran, Dr. Biju, Jayaraj and Renjith. He mostly worked on arthouse films and was known for his natural lighting styles. In a career spanning more than two decades, he worked with a number of young film makers, mostly in their maiden ventures. Film Kalamandalam Hyderali 2019, directed by Kiran G. Nath was his last completed work as director of photography.
Malavika Mohanan is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films. The daughter of cinematographer K. U. Mohanan, she made her acting debut in the Malayalam film Pattam Pole (2013). She gained praise for her starring role in Majid Majidi's Hindi film Beyond the Clouds (2017). She has since played the leading lady in the Malayalam thriller film The Great Father (2017), and the Tamil action films Petta (2019) and Master (2021).
Sujith Vaassudev is an Indian cinematographer and film director who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He has also worked in several Tamil and Telugu films. He is best known for his works in Memories (2013), 7th Day (2014), Drishyam (2014) and Lucifer (2019). He was the recipient of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Cinematographer in 2013.
Carbon is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language adventure thriller film written and directed by Venu, starring Fahadh Faasil and Mamta Mohandas. The film follows Sebastian and Sameera on their expedition to find a lost treasure deep inside a forest. K. U. Mohanan was the cinematographer, while Vishal Bhardwaj and Bijibal composed the songs and the score, respectively. Principal photography took place between August and October 2017 in several hilly terrain locations in North Kerala.
Andhadhun is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film co-written and directed by Sriram Raghavan. It stars Tabu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte and Anil Dhawan. The film tells the story of a blind piano player who unwittingly becomes embroiled in the murder of a retired actor.
Nikhil S. Praveen is an Indian cinematographer working mainly in Malayalam films. The Kottayam native made his debut with the 2017 film Bhayanakam directed by Jayaraj for which he received Best Cinematography award at the 65th National Film Awards.
Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti is an Indian film cinematographer, turned director, screenwriter, editor and producer known for his works in Hindi, Telugu, and Marathi cinema. In 1999, Reddy made his foray into cinema as an assistant cinematographer under Ajayan Vincent. In 2018 he directed the Marathi feature film Naal, for which he fetched the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director.
SIIMA Award for Best Cinematographer – Telugu is presented by Vibri media group as part of its annual South Indian International Movie Awards, for the best cinematography done by a person in Telugu films. The award was first given in 2012 for films released in 2011.
Chidambaram S. Poduval, known professionally as Chidambaram, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Malayalam cinema.
