February 11, 2008

BEST FILM DIRECTOR(FICTION)



SURAJ VARMA
33 year old Film-maker

Suraj Varma is a member of the erstwhile Royal family of Kilimanoor, and grew up hearing stories about the folk lore and that upbringing propelled him into a career in arts and film making.

Armed with a Diploma in Film Direction and Screenplay writing, Suraj Varma started his career assisting, the late Mr. Ismail Merchant and James Ivory of Merchant Ivory Productions (MIP) in “Cotton Mary” and ‘Mystic Masseur’. In August 2001, Suraj joined Rajiv Menon Productions and worked with Rajiv in over 100 commercials. During his tenure there, Suraj worked on TVC’s for various brands like Asian Paints, Cadbury’s Perk, TVS Scooty Pep, the HLL brands (Bru and Green Label), Nescafe, Titan, Hero Cycles, Allukas Jewellery & Medicare. In the process he dealt with all the major Advertising Agencies in the country, like O & M, Mc Cann Ericsson, RK Swamy, JWT & Contract.

In January 2006, Suraj decided to pursue his calling and became an independent film maker. In the course of the year he wrote and directed a short film (6383 Kollam Express) and setup his film production company Suraj Varma Productions. He independently produced and directed commercials for Mr.Bean Coffee, Deccan Chronicle, Malayala Manorama, Agsarcem Paints and Next Shop. Suraj completed three (a trilogy) short films on the Cochin Royal Family History. After “all are but one” in 2005 and “Continuum” in 2006 it was "Renaissance” in 2007.

Suraj ventured into animation and directed a 17 minutes classroom session for Cyber School Technologies Ltd, for their virtual classroom sessions in Africa.

Suraj completed a corporate AV on Chemotherapy for Appollo' s Cancer Speciality Hospital at Chennai.

He is currently working on a Historical Documentary on the Cochin State Forest Tramway (CSFT), the tramline that ran from Parambikulam to Chalakudy in the early 20th century, which bought in timber that helped in making the Cochin Port.

He is also in talks with various producers for two of his feature films in Malayalam (“Aanachooru” – The Smell of the Elephant and “its business”).

His short films are now traveling to festivals world wide, mainly in the U.S and U.K and the film “6383 Kollam exp” has won the Second Best Short Feature – Fiction award at the Cochin International Monsoon Film Festival held in July 2007.

Suraj is married and he lives and works out of Chennai.

FILMOGRAPHY
Short Films
“Home Coming” ( Mal – 7 mts)
“Ekamevadvitheeyam” - all are but one (Mal – 18mts)
“6383 Kollam Express” (Eng – 23 mts)
“Nairanthariyam”- Continuum (Mal – 18 mts)
"Renaissance" – Navothanam (Eng – 12 mts)
TV Commercials
Mr. Bean Coffee
Deccan Chronicle
Malayala Manorama
‘NEXT’ group of electronic showrooms.
Agsar Paints

Documentary / AV
AV on Chemotherapy for Apollo Specialty Hospitals, Chennai.

Animation
A Classroom module on HIV AIDS in Flash 2D for Cyber School Technology Solutions,
Kenya, Africa.
A Demo presentation for their Environmental Learning Module (ELM) in part Maya 3D for Cyber School Technology Solutions, India

OTHER INTERESTS
Started and Managed a company, “Marine Life Aquariums”, which specialized in setting up and maintaining marine (sea water) aquariums, maintaining a public marine aquarium at a 5 star hotel, “The Renaissance”, Cochin, for three years.

Conducted workshops on Screenplay Writing and Direction for Mass Communication students at Choice Institute, Tripunithura, for B.A. Communicative English students at St.Teresa’s College, Ernakulam and for the PG students at SCMS, Kalamassery.

1 comment:

kp said...

lovely profile. go surajetto.