Ravi Varman

Ravi Varman
Ravi Varman
	Varman in 2011
Born	Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupations	Cinematographer; filmmaker; producer; writer;
Years active	1999—present

S. Ravi Varman is an Indian cinematographer, filmmaker, producer and writer. He has predominantly worked in films in Indian languages such as Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. Known for his realistic and poetic framing sense, Ravi Varman began his career in Malayalam films. He directed a romantic film in Tamil titled Moscowin Kavery and also filmed the music video for the song "Bird Flu" by British Tamil songwriter M.I.A.

Early life[edit]

Ravivarman was born in a village named Poyyundarkudikadu near Pattukottai in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India.^[1]

Career[edit]

He started his career by assisting cinematographer Ravi K Chandran. After working in Malayalam films since 1999 for three years, he worked in Bollywood for the film Yeh Dil in 2003. 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

Awards and honours[edit]

23rd EME France Film Festival Best Cinematographer Award for Santham Malayalam (2000)
Filmfare Best Cinematographer Award for Anniyan (2006)
Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer for Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2007)
Vikitan Best Cinematography Award (South) for Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2007)
ITFA Best Cinematographer Award for Dasavathaaram (2009)
Star Guild Awards for Best Cinematography for Barfi! (2012)
Screen Awards for Best cinematography for Barfi! (2012)
TOIFA Awards for Best Cinematography for Barfi! (2012)
IIFA Awards for Best Cinematography for Barfi! (2012)
Zee Cine Awards for Best cinematography for Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2014)
Vijay Award for Best Cinematography for Kaatru Veliyidai (2017)
SIIMA Award for Best Cinematography for Kaatru Veliyidai (2017)

Filmography[edit]

As director[edit]

Moscowin Kavery (2010)
Treasure Music Video (2011) Also as Cinematographer and Lyricist

As producer[edit]

Azhagu (2010)
Vellaiya Irukiravan Poi Solla Maatan (2015)

As cinematographer[edit]

Films[edit]

List of Ravi Varman film credits as cinematographer
Year	Title	Language	Notes
1999	Jalamarmaram	Malayalam
2000	Sathyam Sivam Sundaram	Malayalam
2000	Santham	Malayalam
2001	Valliettan	Malayalam
	Vakkalathu Narayanankutty	Malayalam
	Five Star	Tamil
2003	Yeh Dil	Hindi
	Jai	Telugu
	Armaan	Hindi
	Kilichundan Mampazham	Malayalam
	Bee Busthar	Malayalam
2004	Five by Four	English
	Phir Milenge	Hindi
	Autograph	Tamil	Collaborated with Vijay Milton
2005	Anniyan	Tamil	Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer – South^[a]
2005	Ramji Londonwale	Hindi
2006	Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu	Tamil	Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer
2008	Dasavathaaram	Tamil
2009	Villu	Tamil
2010	Kandahar	Malayalam	Collaborated with Velraj
2011	Badrinath	Telugu
2012	Barfi!	Hindi
2013	Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela	Hindi	Zee Cine Awards 2014 - Best Cinematography
2015	Tamasha	Hindi
2017	Kaatru Veliyidai	Tamil	Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards for Best Cinematography Vijay Award for Best Cinematographer Behindwoods Gold Medal for Best Cinematographer
	Jagga Jasoos	Hindi	Nominated - Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography
	Heartbeats	English
2018	Sanju	Hindi
2019	Mission Mangal	Hindi
2019	Kolaambi	Malayalam
2022	Ponniyin Selvan: I	Tamil	Nominated -16th Asian Film Award for Best Cinematography
2022	Salaam Venky	Hindi
2023	Ponniyin Selvan: II	Tamil
2023	Japan	Tamil
2024	Indian 2 †	Tamil	Filming

As guest cinematographer[edit]

List of Ravi Varman film credits as guest cinematographer
Year	Film	Language	Notes
1999	Vaali	Tamil
2001	Minnale	Tamil	2 songs
2011	7aum Arivu	Tamil	1 Song
2014	Ugramm	Kannada

Music videos[edit]

"Bird Flu" by M.I.A. (2007)
"Aarachar" by Thaikkudam Bridge (2016)

Documentaries[edit]

Child Environment

Notes[edit]

^ Jointly awarded with V. Manikandan

References[edit]

^ Varman, Ravi (21 June 2003). "Interview with cinematographer Ravi Varman". Chennai Online (Interview). Interviewed by Malini Mannath. Archived from the original on 22 February 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
^ "Mani Ratnam's heads overseas for a Marathon shoot". raatnam.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
^ "RAVI VARMAN - The Director, Cinematographer - Sunday special Interview on Dasavatharam Cinematographer Ravi Varman". Behindwoods.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2011.

External links[edit]

Official website
Ravi Varman at IMDb

[4] Jointly awarded with V. Manikandan

[1] Varman, Ravi (21 June 2003). "Interview with cinematographer Ravi Varman". Chennai Online (Interview). Interviewed by Malini Mannath. Archived from the original on 22 February 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2011.

[2] "Mani Ratnam's heads overseas for a Marathon shoot". raatnam.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.

[3] "RAVI VARMAN - The Director, Cinematographer - Sunday special Interview on Dasavatharam Cinematographer Ravi Varman". Behindwoods.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2011.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[a]

v t e Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer
1968–1980	P. N. Sundaram (1968) Marcus Bartley (1969) Amirtham (1970) — (1971) — (1972) — (1973) — (1974) — (1975) — (1976) Babu (1977–78) A. Somasundaram, Nallusamy / Gnanasekar, Tiwary (1978–79) B. S. Lokanath (1979–80) Ashok Kumar (1980–81)
1981–2000	B. Kannan (1981–82) Soumendu Roy (1982–83) — (1984) — (1985) — (1986) — (1987) Ajayan Vincent (1988) Ashok Kumar (1989) Abdul Rahman (1990) Raghunatha Reddy (1991) Santosh Sivan (1992) M. C. Shekar (1993) Jeeva (1994) Santosh Sivan (1995) Arthur A. Wilson (1996) Thangar Bachan (1997) Annadurai (1998) Ilavarasu (1999) Ananda Kuttan (2000)
2001–present	R. Rathnavelu (2001) Arjun Jena (2002) N. K. Ekambaram (2003) B. Kannan (2004) R. D. Rajasekhar (2005) Ravi Varman (2006) Nirav Shah (2007) Arthur A. Wilson (2008) Manoj Paramahamsa (2009) Santosh Sivan / V. Manikandan (2010) Balasubramaniem (2011) M. Sukumar (2012) Siddharth (2013) Nirav Shah (2014) Ramji (2015)