Rajiv Menon

As a result of his travels as a youth, Menon rarely had exposure to television apart from group screenings of war films such as The Guns of Navarone (1961) at the naval base.

Once his family moved to Visakhapatnam, he became increasingly interested in cinema, and was impressed by a mixture of Hindi and Malayalam films such as Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Chemmeen (1965), Nirmalyam (1973), Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973).

Menon later moved to Madras aged fifteen and spent his formative years in the city.

The death of his father during the period meant that Menon was left with little guidance during and did not want to take up a job which would put him in a "rat race".

He was gifted a spare camera by his neighbour Desikan, a photo journalist with The Hindu, with the move igniting an interest for Menon in cinematography.

After gaining admission into the Madras Film Institute, he began to explore filmmaking as a nuance and became a keen follower of the work of Bengali directors such as Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, and Tamil directors such as Balu Mahendra and Mahendran.

Menon began his career in the entertainment industry as a still photographer, while also dabbling in work on fashion shoots and corporate films.

He later got into commercials, and eventually graduated into working on them as a director.

As a part of his commitment to an advert for Harvest Groundnut Oil, he first became acquainted with music composer A. R. Rahman, then widely known by his birth name of Dileep Kumar.

Rajiv Menon (born 20 April 1963) is an Indian filmmaker who has worked as a director and cinematographer in several Indian regional film industries.

Rajiv Menon was born on 20 April 1963 in Cochin, Kerala into a Malayalam-speaking family.

As a result of his father's occupation as a naval officer, Menon regularly had the chance to live across different parts of India at a very young age.

His mother is the noted playback singer Kalyani Menon, while his brother currently serves as an officer in the Indian Railways.

The pair subsequently regularly collaborated on commercials, and often worked together in the late 1980s on brands such as Allwyn and Asian Paints.

As his profile as an ad film-maker improved, Rajiv Menon worked on a few documentaries for filmmakers including Girish Karnad and Shyam Benegal.

Karnad consequently offered him the opportunity to be the cinematographer for the Kannada film Jokumaraswamy in 1990, but the project was stalled after its lead actor Shankar Nag died in a car crash the day before the shoot.

Another proposed film, Agniputhri was also shelved soon after its announcement.

The following year, cinematographer P. C. Sreeram picked Menon to replace him for the shoot of Pratap Pothen's Telugu road film, Chaitanya (1991), starring Nagarjuna and Gautami.

Menon has since revealed that his first assignment was a "physically and mentally exhausting" film to shoot, as it was full of chase scenes involving boats and motor cycles, and that he "couldn't wait to get back to commercials".

He then worked with Karnad on a Kannada film titled Cheluvi (1992), to make up for the previous missed opportunity.

During the period, Menon notably turned down the opportunity to work with M. Night Shyamalan on his directorial debut, Praying with Anger (1992), and on the chance to work as the lead actor in Mani Ratnam's romantic drama, Roja (1992).

Menon was then approached by Mani Ratnam to shoot Bombay (1994), a film centred on events that occurred leading up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, and the increased religious tensions that led to the Bombay riots.

As a part of his instructions, Menon needed to depict the scenes before the riots as beautiful as possible.

So, Menon suggested shooting in the rains to achieve the effect.

The team shot the interiors of homes in Pollachi in Tamil Nadu and the exteriors were shot in Kasargod, and Kannur village in Kerala, while the song sequence Uyire was shot at Bekal Fort.

Menon described that the success of the film "changed his life".

After making his breakthrough as a film cinematographer with Mani Ratnam's Tamil drama Bombay (1995), Menon has continued to collaborate with Ratnam on other projects including Guru (2007) and Kadal (2013).

He has also directed 2 critically acclaimed Tamil films, Minsara Kanavu (1997) and Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000), winning a Filmfare Award for the latter.

After a sabbatical, Menon returned to directing with Sarvam Thaala Mayam.

Away from films, Menon is a leading Indian advertising director, and runs Rajiv Menon Productions and Mindscreen Film Institute, which supplies equipment for documentaries, advertising films and cinemas.

AVM Productions wanted to make a film to commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1997 and signed on Prabhu Deva to play a lead role and A. R. Rahman to score the music for a potential project.

The production studio revealed that they were looking for a new director and Rahman suggested the name of Rajiv Menon to make his directorial debut.

Menon thought about the offer for two months and was ultimately convinced by Rahman and Mani Ratnam to accept the project titled Minsara Kanavu.

Arvind Swamy was then signed up for a role as was Hindi actress Kajol, to make her debut in Tamil films.

The film was released in January 1997 and was successful at the Chennai box office, notably outperforming Mani Ratnam's political drama Iruvar (1997), which was released on the same day.

After audiences were initially unhappy with the sad climax of the film, distributors reverted and used an alternate ending which had also been shot for the film.

A critic from Indolink.com gave the film a positive review, stating that "Minsara Kanavu is again a triangular love story with a little difference. It has good entertainment value, awesome cinematography and excellent songs and choreographed dances."

The film was partially re-shot and released by ABC Films in October 1997 in Hindi as Sapnay to capitalise on Kajol's popularity in Northern India, earning above average reviews from critics.

After the success of his maiden venture, Menon was signed by producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu to direct a film under his production in the final quarter of 1998.

Menon announced he had begun pre-production work on a project titled Theekkul Viralai Vaithal during November 1998, with the title taken from a line by Subramania Bharati.