India’s cinematographer Santosh Sivan honored at the 77th Cannes: Became the first Indian to receive the prestigious ‘Pierre Agenaux Excellence in Cinematography’ Award

The 77th Cannes Film Festival concluded on 25 May. This time, while 4 Indian filmmakers received awards, on the other hand, India’s world famous cinematographer Santosh Sivan was awarded the prestigious ‘Pierre Agenaux Excellence in Cinematography’ award at Cannes 2024.

Along with this, Special Encouragement Award was given to young cinematographer Kadri Koop of Estonia.

Santosh Sivan (third from left) with guests on stage.

Angénieux started this award in 2013
The company ‘Angenieux’ which makes cameras and modern lenses for shooting films is the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival. Angenieux was the first company to invent the SLR (single lens reflex) camera and zoom lens.

Not only this, the camera of this company had sent close-up pictures of the surface of the moon for the first time on 31 July 1964 in NASA’s Ranger 7 moon mission. In 2013, this company in association with the Cannes Film Festival started the Life Time Achievement and Encouragement Award in the field of cinematography which is continuing till date.

Ceremonial dinner hosted for Santosh
This time this honour was given to India’s cinematographer Santosh Sivan. On this occasion Santosh’s master class and a grand ceremonial dinner were organised at the Majestic Hotel.

On this occasion, Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremon said that India is a great country for cinema and after a long time, India’s great presence is being seen in the Cannes Film Festival. However, Indian films have been shown in the Cannes Film Festival since the beginning.

Frames praised Santosh saying that he is a genius in his art and has taken cinematography to new artistic heights.

Emmanuel Sproul, head of the Agenieux company, said that Santosh is one of the greatest cinematographers in the world. He is the greatest cinematographer in India right now. His body of work is the best. French actress Mélanie Laurent and Chinese-French actress Jing Wang also underlined the importance of Santosh.

India’s Ambassador to France Javed Ashraf discussed Santosh Sivan’s Hindi films in detail and said that his work is amazing. Recalling the premiere of Mani Ratnam’s film ‘Dil Se’ in Berlin, he said that along with Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta, the audience also liked Santosh’s beautiful cinematography.

When Santosh was honoured on stage, actress Preity Zinta was also present there.

Preity Zinta said- When you have satisfaction, you become relaxed
On this occasion, actress Preity Zinta also recalled the moments spent with Santosh during the shooting of the film. She said that when you are acting in front of Santosh’s camera, your happiness increases. You become relaxed because you can trust him. You are filled with satisfaction because you feel that some miracle is going to happen.

On this occasion, video messages from renowned personalities of Indian cinema like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Mohanlal, Shekhar Kapur, Vidya Balan and Mani Ratnam etc were shown sharing their experiences of shooting with Santosh Sivan.

Santosh has done cinematography for about 57 films and directed more than 17 films. These days he is busy shooting for Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Santoshi’s film ‘Lahore 1947’ and Ritesh Deshmukh’s film ‘Raja Shivaji’. Along with this, he is also busy shooting for his film ‘Juni’.

Santosh said- I have been a bad husband
Santosh himself expressed his gratitude on this occasion and said that cinematography is such an art in which the walls of languages ​​and countries are not a barrier. As easily as I work in Tamil and Malayalam cinema, I work in Hindi cinema, Hollywood and world cinema with the same ease.

He said that once he was invited by the Cinematographer Association of Japan and he stayed with them for 50 days. He saw them singing the famous song ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ from his film ‘Dil Se’. Sivan said that cinematography is a global art and hence it is universal.

He said that I have always been a bad husband who often left my wife and son alone for work. Today they are here and they must be happy. He remembered his parents and grandmother from whom he learned the rich culture of Kerala.

On this occasion Santosh gave a long speech from the stage.

Cannes not only respects actors and directors but also technicians: Santosh
In an exclusive interview, Santosh said that we Indians should learn from the passion, commitment and style with which the Cannes Film Festival is organised. These people not only respect the actors and directors but also the technicians. Technicians play a very important role in making cinema. Without them, you cannot make films.

Talking about his long cinematic journey, Santosh said that it was amazing. I became a cinematographer because I wanted to travel and see the world. You see, one life is not enough to shoot even India.

I have not yet been able to shoot in many places in India where I have wanted to shoot for years. When I got membership of the American Cinematographic Society 10 years ago, I could have easily settled in Hollywood. But I chose to stay in India because the cinema I can imagine here cannot be done there.

When there is so much work to do in India itself, why is there a need to go anywhere else? However, whenever I get an opportunity to work anywhere in the world, I work and come back to my country India.

I will take a long break from cinema and do farming
He said that while making a documentary on farmers, I realized that farming is the best work in the world. If I was not a cinematographer, I would have been a farmer. I thought that my son should grow up in a natural environment away from urban pollution, so I bought land in Puducherry and built a house. He also likes all this. I will take a break from cinema and do farming. I cannot do both the jobs together. After completing all the shooting that is left for me, I will take a long break from cinema and do farming.

Santosh has done cinematography for approximately 57 films and directed more than 17 films in his career.

Bollywood is also adopting the South’s formula

When asked that when we think about Indian cinema, only Mumbai cinema comes to mind, which is not true. Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu cinema is also very big, so what do we call Indian cinema? Santosh said- Now the situation is changing. This is happening slowly. Now we have started using a new word – Pan Indian film.

In recent years, South Indian films have become very popular in North India, especially in Bollywood. Bollywood has also started adopting the South’s formula. At the same time, due to big heroes, superheroes, larger than life and OTT, you have to do and show something very big for the theatre. Therefore, now Bollywood is also changing.

The voices of actors and directors are being raised. But I believe that ultimately both cannot be the same. For example, Malayalam cinema has a special character. They must have their own house plan.

On the trend of South Indian film directors like Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Atlee making Bollywood films, he said that this is a temporary trend. You remember that Raj Kapoor and Karan Johar also tried such experiments. But what happened? They can never become one. In India, the character of every kind of cinema will remain because it is connected to the culture.

Author: Ajit Roy (Senior journalist and film critic)