Biju Viswanath is an Indian film director, director of photography, film editor and screenwriter. Across various genres, he has made numerous films in different languages, notably, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Irish, Swahili & Urdu.
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.
Santosh Thundiyil is an Indian cinematographer. He is best known for films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Devadoothan (2000), Krrish (2006), Pinjar (2003), Rowdy Rathore (2012) and Jai Ho (2014).
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.
Kabir Khan is an Indian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer who works in Hindi cinema. He started his career working in documentary films, and then made his feature film directorial debut in 2006 with the adventure thriller Kabul Express. He is best known for directing New York (2009), Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), and 83 (2021). His latest film Chandu Champion was released on 14 June 2024 opening to positive reviews. This was his second sports biopic after 83.
Sudeep Chatterjee is an Indian cinematographer, who mainly works in Hindi films and Bengali films. He has collaborated with critically acclaimed directors like Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Vishal Bharadwaj, Srijit Mukherji, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Nagesh Kukunoor. He is mostly known for his work in films like Iqbal (2005), Chak De India (2007), Guzaarish (2010), Dhoom 3 (2013), Chotushkone (2014), Bajirao Mastani (2015), Padmaavat (2018), and Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022). He has received the National Film Award for Best Cinematography, twice, for Chotushkone and Bajirao Mastani.
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).
Rajeev Ravi is an Indian cinematographer, director, and producer from Kochi, Kerala. He's best known for his work in Hindi and Malayalam films. After graduating from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 1997, he started his career by assisting in the Malayalam film, Pranayavarnangal (1998) shot by Santosh Thundiyil. He debuted as a cinematographer with the film Chandni Bar (2001), when he was launched by producer R. Mohan when the original cinematographer Venu had date clashes. The film was directed by Madhur Bhandarkar.
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.
Apurba Kishore Bir, also known as A. K. Bir, is an Indian film cinematographer, screenwriter and director. An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, he worked in various Ad-films and documentaries before making his feature-film debut. He won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography for 27 Down, his debut film. His directional debut Aadi Mimansa won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. Bir's other directional ventures Lavanya Preeti and Baaja were bestowed with the National Film Award for Best Children's Film. As of 2014, he has won nine National Film Awards—including three for Best Cinematography—and is one of the directors of National Film Development Corporation of India.
Chitrasutram (The Image Threads) is a 2010 Malayalam film, written & directed by Vipin Vijay, produced by Altaf Mazid, Zubeen Ahmad, Sushanta Roy under the banner of Unknown Films. The film was also supported by Hubert Bals Film Fund, Rotterdam, Goteborg Film Fund, Goteborg, Sweden and the Global Film Initiative, US.
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.
K. U. Mohanan is an Indian film cinematographer who primarily works in the Bollywood and Malayalam film industries. He is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He has worked in several documentaries and Non feature films in his early days. He is a member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC).
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is an Indian poet, lawyer, and filmmaker.
Adwaith Shine is a commercial photographer, film director, and cinematographer, who works in the Malayalam film industry.
Nick Remy Matthews, ACS, is a British-born, Australian-raised director of photography based in Europe. In 2020 he was named "Cinematographer of the Year" by the Australian Cinematographer's Society. He was also named byVariety as one of the "10 Cinematographers to Watch" in 2019 for his work on Hotel Mumbai., a factual action drama depicting the Mumbai terror attacks, directed by long time collaborator Anthony Maras. The film stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Suhail Nayyar, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Tilda Cobham-Hervey and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2018 where Matthews was singled out for praise for his work on the film. Rolling Stone declare that "Even in the chaos of bullets and bombs — kudos to ace cinematographer Nick Remy Matthews — Maras creates a sense of actual lives hanging in the balance.". The Hollywood Reporter also praises the "...kinetic cinematography..." that enhances "...the idea that these are real events.". Variety describes the film as "Stunningly framed and photographed..." and as having a "...visual striking aesthetic."Washington Square News describes the film's cinematography as spanning "...cramped utility closets and breathtaking skylines, a visual treat from beginning to end."
Painting Life is a 2018 Indian English film written and directed by Bijukumar Damodaran. The film was jointly produced by Silicon Media and Blue Ocean Pictures and depicts the experience of a film crew who are stranded in a remote Himalayan village.
Shiny Benjamin, is a National Award-winning Indian director of documentaries and docufictions, from Trivandrum, Kerala.
Irom Maipak was an Indian cinematographer from Imphal, Manipur. He was the founding president of the All Manipur Cinematographers Association. Maipak had worked for more than three decades in Films and Television industry. He received the prestigious National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Cinematography at the 49th National Film Awards.
