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Venugopal Pillai (born 26 January 1957), popularly known as Venu, is an Indian cinematographer and film director who works mainly in Malayalam cinema. An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and CMS college Kottayam. He has been the recipient of four National Film Awards, including three for Best Cinematography and one Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director, and four Kerala State Film Awards. He is a founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC).

Personal life

Venu is the grandson of Malayalam author, Karur Neelakanta Pillai. Venu is married to Indian film editor, Beena Paul, since 26 August 1983. The couple have a daughter, Malavika, who is married and is the manager of the Great North Museum: Hancock.

Career

Venu graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, with a diploma in motion picture photography in 1982. He has worked as cinematographer in over 80 feature films with Mani Kaul, K G George, John Abraham, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Pamela Rooks, Padmarajan, Bharathan and M. T. Vasudevan Nair.

In 1987, Venu received his first National Film Award (jointly for Amma Ariyan and Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal). He went onto receive two more awards for Miss Beatty's Children (1993) and Ponthan Mada (1994). In 1998, he made his directorial debut with Daya, a period fiction written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair. The film won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Debut Director and Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. In 2014, he directed his second film, Munnariyippu, starring Mammootty. His latest work is Carbon, starring Fahadh Faasil.

Filmography

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As cinematographer

As director

• Daya (1998)
• Munnariyippu (2014)
• Carbon (2018)
• Aanum Pennum (2021)

Awards

National Film Awards

Kerala State Film Awards

• 1985 - Irakal - Best Cinematography
• 1992 – Aham – Best Cinematography
• 2003 - Margam - Best Cinematography

References

1. "Great North Museum: Hancock welcomes Malavika Anderson as new Museum Manager | Great North Museum: Hancock".
2. "34th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals.
3. "40th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals.
4. "41st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
5. ^ Nagarajan, Saraswathy (5 June 2014). "Prisoners of circumstance". The Hindu. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
6. Nagarajan, Saraswathy (18 January 2018). "Fahadh Faasil was in his element in 'Carbon': Venu". The Hindu.

External links

• Venu at IMDb

• Living people
• Malayalam film directors
• Film and Television Institute of India alumni
• Best Cinematography National Film Award winners
• Malayalam film cinematographers
• 20th-century Indian photographers
• 21st-century Indian photographers
• Film directors from Alappuzha district
• 20th-century Indian people
• 21st-century Indian people
• Cinematographers from Kerala
• Malayalam screenwriters
• Screenwriters from Kerala
• Director whose film won the Best Debut Feature Film National Film Award
• 1961 births