Growing up in a small Sri Lankan village, Siva Santhakumar was surrounded by images of beautiful landscapes that brought him to life.
He discovered further elements which paved his career; War, hate, passion and love were to arise within the visions he saw. He became very curious about the images he saw.
Not only did he see powerful art through every story around him, but he started to use flicker images as a powerful tool to tell stories and change people’s points of view.
Perhaps it was his father who taught him the beauty of photography, and the passion for it. His drive within which pushed him to nomadic points of madness, the patience needed to understand the HOW and WHAT to catch significant moments.
There was something more that he needed to help connect his passions together, with his natural skill to observe not only people’s reactions.
It was Cinematography.
Siva always knew his dream would come true if he cultivated his courage and worked hard, but the Civil War back in Sri Lanka made this virtually impossible. He managed to escape from his motherland to London to pursue his career in Cinematography. Since 2012 he gained the experience on..
"I have been working with Mr Santhakumar over the past year, where he has undertaken the arduous task of DOP filming a new 13 episode TV series (the equivalent to 4.5 features).
Siva's cinematographical experience and professional attention to detail has made him someone I have come to really appreciate, respect and rely upon.
His concentration and suggestions have really helped to make the series a pleasure to work on. I really look forward to more projects with him in the future."
"After I had an impressive experience with “The Last Halt (2014)” at Jaffna International Film Festival, I showed my curiosity to work with Siva Santhakumar.
He became very good working and personal friend during “The Sixth Land (2018)” production and his moderation with the camera in presenting exactly the kind of our story will be always remembered on this land and the art we loved most.
I believe that he is one of the most important cinema artist among our own Eelam cinema movements.."
"I had a script for a 20 minutes’ short film. I had been writing it two years and I kept on polishing it for one year. I already managed to raise a part of fund to produce it. I was waiting for the rest of the fund to cover the full expenses of the production. In 2017, one day this guy Siva Santhakumar called me and asked me, “do you have any script to be produced?”. I sent him my script. After one hour this crazy man called me back and told, “brother I will come with all my camera and audio equipment and shoot this film for you for free of charge, please schedule the shoot?” I thought he was just boasting. But this guy came all the way from London to Batticaloa with two assistants in his own money. I have never seen or imagined a Cinematographer to such an extent of dedication and madness.
Yes, he is mad of making good films.
We completed the shoot in 3 days and the film (TRANCE) won many awards in many international short film festivals. In my association with Siva Santhakumar, beyond his dedication and passion for films and cinematography I found him to be very creative, competent and professional in discharging all his duties. He would take any risk and lose anything if he is given an opportunity to express his inherent and extra ordinary talent of filming."
""For most of my projects since 2013, I've been working with Siva Santhakumar. This included a couple of music videos, a couple of shortfilms and a feature film called The Last Halt (2015). Working closely with him I was able to see that he has vast knowledge in most departments of film making which helps him do a wonderful job as a cinematographer. I definitely have not seen any cinematographers in the Eezham Tamil movement who give the same attention to detail to feature films as does Siva Santhakumar."
Siva Santhakumar is my favorite DOP to work with and after 8 years of working on projects together, I am looking forwards to many more. He is reliable, hard-working, and always delivers the vision.