Early life
Ravi was born in a village named Poyyundarkudikadu near Pattukottai in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. [2] [3] Ravi adopted his surname inspired by the Chola kings Arunmozhi Varman and Kulothunga Varman. [4] His interest in photography and cinematography developed during his formative years, as he studied the works of painters like Rembrandt and Picasso. [4]
Following the loss of his parents, he moved to Chennai at the age of 14. [3] His career in cinematography began after working as an office boy in a film production company, where he trained under cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran. [3]
Career
He made his debut as a cinematographer with Jalamarmaram (1999) and gained attention with Jayaraj’s Malayalam film Shantham (2001), earning the 23rd EMI Third Continent Award for Best Cinematography. [3] After working in Malayalam films since 1999 for three years, he worked in Hindi cinema for the film Yeh Dil in 2003. [3] He later worked in the Telugu film Jai and received more offers in Hindi, such as Armaan , Bee Busthar, Ramji Londonwale , and Phir Milenge , His next project is going to be with Maniratnam. [5]
It was not until 2002 when he started to work in Tamil films, with his first one being Susi Ganeshan's Five Star . He continued to work with directors as a cinematographer in Tamil films, including S. Shankar's Anniyan , Gautham Vasudev Menon's Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu , K. S. Ravikumar's Dasavathaaram and Villu , which was directed by Prabhu Deva. [6]
In 2023, Ravi received his first National Film Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Ponniyin Selvan: I , directed by Mani Ratnam [7] and was featured in the FC-Ormax Power List of Technicians, recognizing his contributions to the entertainment industry alongside other prominent technicians. [8] In 2024, Varman directed and co-produced Bande Utkala Janani Anthem, a tourism video promoting the state of Odisha. [9] The video features music by Pritam and uses the lyrics of "Bande Utkala Janani", a patriotic anthem written by Odia poet Kantakabi Laxmikanta Mohapatra. [9]
After completing Ponniyin Selvan , Ravi worked on Revathy’s Salaam Venky and resumed post-production on Ratnam’s film. [4] Varman collaborated with Kamal Haasan once again on Indian 2 , after previously working with him on Dasavathaaram (2008). [10] [11] The film is a sequel to Indian (1996) [10] [8] In 2024, Varman was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of its 2025 class of new members. [12] He is currently working on the upcoming movie Love Insurance Kompany , directed by Vignesh Shivan. [13]
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