ASC Inducts New Member Ravi Varman
The cinematographer shoots features in the Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi film industries.
Hailing from a small village in southern India, Ravi Varman was orphaned at age 12 and had to drop out of school to seek work. He made his way to Madras and worked odd jobs while sleeping on the streets. He was 14 and working as a hotel cleaner when he bought his first camera, a Zenit TTL SLR. He had no idea how the camera worked, but a treasured snapshot of his mother motivated him to buy it and learn.
At 18, he entered the film industry as an office boy and then spent two years working through various jobs — makeup artist, art assistant, assistant director — to become an assistant cinematographer. He learned English by watching movies and referring to an English-to-Tamil dictionary.
He began shooting Malayalam films in 1999 and now also works in the Tamil and Hindi film industries. His feature credits include Ponniyin Selvan: I and II (for which he won Filmfare Awards), Santham, Salaam Venky and Mission Mangal. He has also shot more than 350 commercials, including spots for Samsung, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Vivo.
He is a member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Visit his website here and his Instagram here.
View the current ASC membership roster here.
