Sanjeev Sivan

Sanjeev Sivan is a Malayalam film director. He was born in Kerala, India. He came from a filmmaking family; from his father, Sivan, who is also into filmmaking, his brother, Santosh, is also a film director and cameraman. He was the DOP of Sanjeev in most of his movies and Mani Ratnam's Hindi film, Dil Se. His other brother, Sangeeth, has also directed several Bollywood films including the 2006 Bollywood film, Apna Sapna Money Money. Sanjeev graduated from the New York Film School. He started his career as an Executive Producer for films like Abhayam (1991), Johny (1993), and Keshu (2009).

Sanjeev directed his debut feature film Aparichitan (The Stranger), which was released in 2004. After this, he took a long gap and returned with a bang in the year 2012. He directed Venalodungathe, which became the first regional language film that was released in North America through HBO. The film was based on a true story of an old couple, who wanted to have a child by using their dead son’s semen. However, the hospital refused to give them samples. Through the help of some doctors and lawyers, the old couple has won the case.

Prior to this, Sanjeev made a documentary of the same story entitled After Life. In 2013, it was announced that he would do the women-centric film, Arabian Safari, which stars Lakshmi Rai and Mallika in the lead roles. In 2014, the film Venalodungathe was screened at the Hidden Gems Film Festival in Calgary and was entitled as Endless Summer. During a long gap, he has completed more than 30 short films and 75 documentaries. He also has a wide production experience for Discovery Channel, Nat Geo channel, Al Jazeera, and much more.

He co-directed the 47-minute film, Underground Inferno, together with Umesh Aggarwal Umesh Aggarwal is an Indian director and documenta >> Read More... . The film won the Best Short Film Award in the Environmental category at the 40th International Film Festival of India. Sanjeev also helmed the Malayalam film, 15 Hours, with Mammootty in the lead role. He also directed a 30-minute documentary film titled The Achtung Baby; an Indo-Aryans story about German women, who traveled to Dhahanu to search for an intelligent blue-eyed man with a long nose and high cheekbones and hope to become pregnant with them.

Sanjeev was also involved in directing documentary movies for American Broadcast Corporation. In 2015, Sanjeev directed the EKTA (Emerging Kerala Talent Association) Film Festival and was headed by prominent personalities from the film fraternity.