Jeeva (director)

Jeeva (21 September 1963 – 26 June 2007) was an Indian filmmaker, cinematographer and film director in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam-language cinema. He was an established cinematographer in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Jeeva started his career assisting cinematographer P. C. Sreeram in the films such as Nayakan, Agni Natchathiram, Apoorva Sagodharargal, Idhaya Thamarai, Gopura Vasalile and Meera.^[3] He became an independent cinematographer in Priyadarshan's Malayalam film Abhimanyu (1991) starring Mohanlal and went on to film over 20 films including his own directorials. He was director Shankar's usual cinematographer in his early films such as Gentleman (1993), Kadhalan (1994) and Indian (1996). Jeeva's work in Shankar's Kadhalan fetched him the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer. He had also collaborated several times with director Priyadarshan.

The four completed films he directed, namely 12B (2001), Run (Hindi version) (2004), Ullam Ketkumae (2005) and Unnale Unnale (2007), have become blockbusters (except for Run).^[4] He died after suffering acute cardiac arrest in Russia on 26 June 2007 at the age of 43. At the time of his death, he was busy with the final schedule of his latest film, Dhaam Dhoom (2008).^[5]

Jeeva was married to costume designer Anees Tanveer with whom he has two children.^[1][2]

Jeeva died in Saint Petersburg, Russia, following a cardiac arrest while film shooting of Dhaam Dhoom.^[6]

As Still Photographer

• Bombay (1995)

Actors, cinematographers and directors such as Srinath, Arjun Jena, N. K. Ekambaram, Gavemic U. Ary, Jeeva Shankar, K. A. Shakthivel and G. K. Manigandan had worked as assistant, associate directors and assistant cinematographers to him.

• Jeeva at IMDb
• Watch his last interview on YouTube