Karthik Ganesh is a Director of Photography, based in Mumbai, India.

Originally from Chennai, he joined the prestigious Film & Television Institute of India, Pune in 2004. He has been working as an independent cinematographer since 2009.

Karthik has worked on various feature films, shorts, commercials, documentaries and cine-plays.

Over the years, having worked with some very gifted and unique directors, he has developed a personal style with a keen interest in story telling.

Even as a child he was curious about the world of images and getting a Zenit SLR camera as a gift from his father, opened up the possibilities of viewing his world in a new way. The blazing Chennai sun, the stark play of light and shadow and the burst of colours around him helped him shape his craft during his initial years of photography.

The exploration of his interests, soon took him into the forests of South India, where he assisted in a film on King Cobras for the BBC. This experience, made him plunge headlong into filmmaking and he joined the Film and TV Institute of India (FTII), Pune where he honed his skills as a cinematographer and more importantly as a visual storyteller.

Working with form and style is what interests him the most about his films. He believes that every story has a life of it's own and demands to be told in it's own unique format.

For instance, in a world dominated by digital cameras, he chose the medium of 'Film' to shoot the feature film, 'Aurangzeb (2013)', to reflect the strains of the 80's in its story line. 'Aurangzeb' was one of the last few films to be shot on film format in India.

However, a few years down the line, he used a mobile phone to shoot a feature film called 'Side A Side B' because he felt that the mobile phone was the best medium to tell that particular story. Incidentally, it is one of the first few films in India to have used a mobile phone for the entire shooting process.

Towards exploring the narrative structure, he has also shot this new form of storytelling called Cineplays'. A 'Cineplay' is an evolving, narrative structure that marries the 'elements of a Play and the language of Cinema' and is presented to the viewer as a video on demand.

His sound foundation in the language of filmmaking helps him adapt to the newer technologies that come up on a regular basis. In fact, he is one of the first few cinematographers in India to use the then revolutionary Red One camera, which is the worlds' first 4K Digital Camera to shoot on the RAW format. To share his unique experience of spending more than 200 days with the new kid on the block, he wrote an article for the collective - Cinematographers Combine, India.

His latest work is Hiccups and Hookups, a web series for Lionsgate India directed by Kunal Kohli.

His movies include- Aurangzeb for Yash Raj Films, Bombairiya for Kreo Films, Dheet Patangey for SAB, Side A Side B, and Lahore Confidential for Jar Pictures.

His other works include the series, Powder for Yash Raj TV, and Zero KMs for Zee 5, the Cineplays' - Gardish Mein Taare and The Scavengers Daughter, amongst other commercials and short films.

For more information, please check out his website.

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Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx in Back in Action (2025)

Karthik Ganesh(I)

Karthik Ganesh(I)

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