Rajiv Menon
Encyclopedia
Rajiv Menon is an India
n cinematographer
and film maker. He is known for directing critically acclaimed Tamil films like Minsaara Kanavu
and Kandukondain Kandukondain
.
's Telugu film, Chaithanya
. He got into limelight as a cinematographer with his second film that is Mani Ratnam's Bombay
.
(Bombay
, Guru), Shyam Benegal
and Girish Karnad (Cheluvi). His latest contribution has been Mani Ratnam's Guru
.
Menon's first directorial venture Minsaara Kanavu
was not only a popular hit but also fetched Prabhu Deva his first National Award
for Choreography. Also, A R Rahman received National Award for Best Music, S.P.Balasubramaniam won National Award for Thanga Thamarai Magale and K.S Chitra won national award for the song "hoo lalala". His second directorial venture was the multi-starrer Kandukondain Kandukondain
. In addition to directing the film, he also penned the story and screenplay. The song from this movie "Sandhana Thendril" won singer Shankar Mahadevan his first National Award
.
He has also set up Rajiv Menon Productions and Mindscreen Film Institute, which supplies equipment for documentaries, advertising films and cinema.
One of his recent ventures was Guru, an Indian film directed by Maniratnam. He has acted in a Malayalam film called Harikrishnans
and has appeared for a few seconds in his own movie Minsara Kanavu.
His recent work includes a wonderful audio-visual delight about seven great carnatic musicians. This documentary was made for the event of releasing the coffee-table book "Voices Within" by the contemporary musicians T.M Krishna and Bombay Jayashree. The book brings out the personality of seven great Gurus of Carnatic Music with some very rare photographs presented in great print quality. The documentary by Rajiv Menon captures the qualities of these music stalwarts with his gifted inimitable style.
Trendy Watches).So far, Rajiv has done many ads with A R Rahman's Jingles.Noteworthy ones are for Airtel,Colgate, Palmolive, Titan,Asian Paints, Raymonds, Coca Cola.
Rajiv Menon's production house was ranked No.3 by Economic Times Mumbai in 2006. The next year's ranking saw the company move to No.2. Rajiv Menon's production house is set up in Chennai
and his agency clients range from Ogilvy & Mather
, Lintas, Rediffusion, Hindustan Thompson Associates, to even smaller ones like Zero Degree Design Studio, Rubecon and Situations Advertising.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
and film maker. He is known for directing critically acclaimed Tamil films like Minsaara Kanavu
Minsaara Kanavu
Minsara Kanavu is a 1997 Tamil, Romance film, directed by Rajiv Menon. The film's score and soundtrack is composed by A. R. Rahman. Originally produced in Tamil, it went on to be dubbed in Telugu and in Hindi owing to its popularity....
and Kandukondain Kandukondain
Kandukondain Kandukondain
Kandukondain Kandukondain is a 2000 Tamil musical and romantic film based on Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility. Directed and co-written by Rajiv Menon, the film features an ensemble cast of Ajith Kumar, Mammootty, Tabu, Aishwarya Rai and Abbas in the lead roles...
.
Early Life
Rajiv was born in Cochin, Kerala to the popular Tamil and malayalam film playback singer Kalyani Menon. He had the chance to travel across India at a very young age as his father, a naval officer, got transferred often. He later joined the film school to study cinematography. Menon did his schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya on the IIT Madras campus. He met a man named Jason Globerman who inspired him to become cinematographer. He started off as cinematographer with Prathap K. PothanPrathap K. Pothan
Prathap K. Pothan , popularly known by his first name , is an Indian actor, director, writer, producer who has acted in about 95 films. He has acted in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu as well as Hindi films...
's Telugu film, Chaithanya
Chaithanya
The music score is provided by Ilayaraja.* Kanneledi Kannugeeti Kasimeedundi Magada * Oho Laila O Charuseela Kopamela...
. He got into limelight as a cinematographer with his second film that is Mani Ratnam's Bombay
Bombay (film)
Bombay is a critically acclaimed and national award-winning 1995 Tamil film directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala, with music composed by A. R. Rahman...
.
Film career
His versatility as a cinematographer has received much praise, and throughout his career, he has worked with accomplished filmmakers like Mani RatnamMani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi starring Anil Kapoor in 1983...
(Bombay
Bombay (film)
Bombay is a critically acclaimed and national award-winning 1995 Tamil film directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala, with music composed by A. R. Rahman...
, Guru), Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur , Nishant Manthan and Bhumika he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India although he himself has expressed dislike in the term preferring his work to...
and Girish Karnad (Cheluvi). His latest contribution has been Mani Ratnam's Guru
Guru (2006 film)
Guru is a 2007 Indian biographical film co-written and directed by Mani Ratnam. It stars Mithun Chakraborty, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, R. Madhavan, Vidya Balan in the leading roles. The movie also has Mallika Sherawat in a guest appearance. The score and soundtrack for the film is composed...
.
Menon's first directorial venture Minsaara Kanavu
Minsaara Kanavu
Minsara Kanavu is a 1997 Tamil, Romance film, directed by Rajiv Menon. The film's score and soundtrack is composed by A. R. Rahman. Originally produced in Tamil, it went on to be dubbed in Telugu and in Hindi owing to its popularity....
was not only a popular hit but also fetched Prabhu Deva his first National Award
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.Every year, a national panel...
for Choreography. Also, A R Rahman received National Award for Best Music, S.P.Balasubramaniam won National Award for Thanga Thamarai Magale and K.S Chitra won national award for the song "hoo lalala". His second directorial venture was the multi-starrer Kandukondain Kandukondain
Kandukondain Kandukondain
Kandukondain Kandukondain is a 2000 Tamil musical and romantic film based on Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility. Directed and co-written by Rajiv Menon, the film features an ensemble cast of Ajith Kumar, Mammootty, Tabu, Aishwarya Rai and Abbas in the lead roles...
. In addition to directing the film, he also penned the story and screenplay. The song from this movie "Sandhana Thendril" won singer Shankar Mahadevan his first National Award
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.Every year, a national panel...
.
He has also set up Rajiv Menon Productions and Mindscreen Film Institute, which supplies equipment for documentaries, advertising films and cinema.
One of his recent ventures was Guru, an Indian film directed by Maniratnam. He has acted in a Malayalam film called Harikrishnans
Harikrishnans
Harikrishnans is a 1998 Malayalam film directed by Fazil and starring Mammootty, Mohanlal, and Juhi Chawla in the lead roles...
and has appeared for a few seconds in his own movie Minsara Kanavu.
His recent work includes a wonderful audio-visual delight about seven great carnatic musicians. This documentary was made for the event of releasing the coffee-table book "Voices Within" by the contemporary musicians T.M Krishna and Bombay Jayashree. The book brings out the personality of seven great Gurus of Carnatic Music with some very rare photographs presented in great print quality. The documentary by Rajiv Menon captures the qualities of these music stalwarts with his gifted inimitable style.
Advertising career
Falling in love with ad-making at a young age, Menon started his career in the field of ad-photography, and then went on to make a number of TV commercials. Rajiv Menon has been a well-respected and notable personality in the Indian Advertising circuit. He entered the field during the early days (1980's) when competition was nill.It was the time when A R Rahman decided to do music on his own.They become friends and his creativeness combined with A R Rahman's musical Jingles fetched attention from all spectrum towards them. A R Rahman did his first Jingle in a national wide ad with him (AllwynHyderabad Allwyn Limited
Hyderabad Allwyn Limited was established in January 1942 as Allwyn Metal Works. It was started as joint venture of lndustrial Development Trust of the Nizam's Hyderabad Government and M/s Alladin & Company...
Trendy Watches).So far, Rajiv has done many ads with A R Rahman's Jingles.Noteworthy ones are for Airtel,Colgate, Palmolive, Titan,Asian Paints, Raymonds, Coca Cola.
Rajiv Menon's production house was ranked No.3 by Economic Times Mumbai in 2006. The next year's ranking saw the company move to No.2. Rajiv Menon's production house is set up in Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
and his agency clients range from Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy & Mather is an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency based in Manhattan and owned by the WPP Group. The company operates 497 offices in 125 countries with approximately 16,000 employees.-History:...
, Lintas, Rediffusion, Hindustan Thompson Associates, to even smaller ones like Zero Degree Design Studio, Rubecon and Situations Advertising.
Cinematographer
- 1991 - ChaithanyaChaithanyaThe music score is provided by Ilayaraja.* Kanneledi Kannugeeti Kasimeedundi Magada * Oho Laila O Charuseela Kopamela...
- 1995 - BombayBombay (film)Bombay is a critically acclaimed and national award-winning 1995 Tamil film directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala, with music composed by A. R. Rahman...
- 2004 - Morning RagaMorning RagaMorning Raga is an Indian film with most of the dialogue in English, released in 2004. It was directed by Mahesh Dattani and starred Bollywood actresses Shabana Azmi and Perizad Zorabian, and Telugu actor Prakash...
- 2007 - Guru
Producer
- 2001 - Ussele Ussele - Tamil pop album featuring singers: Sreenivas, Karthik and Timmy