Madhu Ambat

Madhu Ambat Biography

Madhu Ambat is a National award winning cinematographer of Indian cinema. He received National award for cinematography three times, belonging to three different languages. He received the award for the first time in 1984 for Sanskrit movie, Adi Sankaracharya. It was followed by Sringaram (Tamil) in 2006 and Adaminte Makan Abu (Malayalam) in 2010. He has received Kerala state awards thrice for the movies - Aswathama, Sooryante Maranam and Yaro Oral (1978), Purushartham, Swathi Thirunal (1987) and Amaram (1990). One of the most experienced cinematographers of Indian film industry, Ambat is known for his lighting techniques. Madhu is a Keralite belonging to Kochi and he currently resides in Chennai. He is also known as a documentary producer and film director. Ambat makes his directorial debut with "1:1.6 — An Ode To Lost Love", an English movie starring Prabhod Das Gupta, Atul Kulkarni, Rathi Agnihotri, Masoomi and Sonali Kulkarni.

He was born to Ambat Sulochana and Prof K. Bhagyanath in 1949. Actress Vidhubala is his younger sister. He is a graduate from FTII, Pune. His father was a magician who has also served as an English professor. He was an amateur photographer too and he played a significant role in nurturing the talents of Madhu become a photographer and finally a cinematographer. He started his career as a documentary film maker working under the doyen of Malayalam cinema, Ramu Kariat, director of Malayalam movie Chemmeen. Madhu has done camera work for more than 120 films, in a career spanning to 40 years.

He completed diploma from FTII in 1973 and very soon entered film world by photographing a documentary for Ramu Kariat. Later he worked under directors mostly belonging to Malayalam and Tamil. Oppol, Uppu, Kulam, Band Jaroke, Khubsurat, Lajja, Chupke se, Churam, Nammavar, Vaishali and Anjali are his noted works.

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Updated: April 02, 2014