All You need to know about Santhosh Sivan -the first-ever Asian Cinematographer to be honored at Cannes(Photo Credit –Instagram)
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Renowned Indian cinematographer Santosh Sivan had been conferred with the prestigious Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography at the Cannes Film Festival 2024.
Hosted by professional cinema lens manufacturer Angénieux at Cannes, the award pays tribute to a renowned cinematographer and recognizes an emerging talent. Santosh became the first Asian cinematographer to be conferred the honor. Estonian-U.S cinematographer Kadri Koop will receive the Angénieux special Encouragement honor.
Here are the things you need to know about Santosh:-
He was born into a Malayali artistic family, and his father is a renowned photojournalist and award-winning cinematographer.
Santosh owes his artistic vision to his grandmother, who used to teach painting in the Travancore palace and narrate stories to them when they were young. His first ‘first visual education.”
Santosh started handling cameras very young, as his father was a photographer. His first camera was Bolex, and he was very much at home in dark rooms processing films. However, he claims that he never thought of becoming a Cinematographer until very late.
Santosh, an FTII, Pune graduate, is a founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers.
He is the most awarded Cinematographer in the country. He has won 11 National awards and 21 International awards. He was also conferred with the Padmasri in 2014.
He has completed more than 60 feature films and 41 documentaries and directed more than 15 films, including Halo, Asoka, Terrorist, Urmi, and Malli.
Santosh Sivan has collaborated with AR Muragadoss the maximum number of times – Thupakki, spyder, darbar
Santhos’s much-acclaimed film “TErrosist” was presented by John Malkovich. Apparently
John Malkovich was the chairman of the jury at the Cairo Film Festival, and when he saw the film, he thought that this was the kind of film that should be released at the Sundance Film Festival. He found the distributor and the rest is history
Santosh’s cinematography philosophy, in his own words, is, “For me, light and shade is the melody, and composition and movement of the camera is the rhythm. If I find these two things in a shot, I’m most excited; I like that.”
His all-time favourite Cinematographers are Subrota Mitra and P K Murthy, and he believes Kagaz Ke Phool and Charulata are timelessness claassics.
