C. K. Muraleedharan

C. K. Muraleedharan Biography

C. K. Muraleedharan is an ace cinematographer associated with Bollywood cinema at present, best known for his association with Rajkumar Hirani for all his movies since 2006. He moved camera for Hirani’s iconic and blockbuster movies – Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots and PK. Marked his debut with Shashilal K Nair’s controversial Ek Choti Si Love Story, he owns the credit of some of the best works in the recent times. Apart from Hiran’ movies, his other major works include - Johnny Gaddar, Agent Vinod and Ek Hasina Thi. Apart from Aamir Khan movies, he did a couple of Saif Ali Khan movies and documentary films.

C. K. Muraleedharan is of Kerala origin. Kottayam is his home town. But he is settled with his family in Mumbai. He has two kids, Karthika Muralidharan who debut Mollywood in 2017 playing lead role opposite Dulquer Salman in CIA, and his younger son Akash Muraleedharan who too made film debut last year through School Bus in lead role. In fact C. K. Muraleedharan marked his Malayalam debut through School Bus. Both the movies were well received.

He graduated from FTII, and had a lot of struggling years before he found his foot in Bollywood. He didn’t have a place to stay in Mumbai, and often slept in footpaths. He has been thrown out of friends’ houses and he tried to get some job. Muraleedharan started his career as a cinematographer shooting documentaries. And soon after, he started his stint in television dramas, through friends like Rajkumar Hiran. In the late eighties, when the Saas-Bahu soaps started coming in, he quit television and started doing films.

Shashilal K Nair’s Ek Choti Si Love Story marked his Bollywood debut. The film was a box office hit. Later   he got opportunity to do camera work of all Hirani films except his debut film. Hirani and Muraleedharan were friends since 1980s, and the back to back hits changed the destiny of Muraleedharan. Now he is one of the leading cinematographers of the industry. Ashutosh Gowarikar and Sriram also are his friends, who have incorporated him for their works. Muraleedharan did the cinematography work of Gowarikar’s last year release, Mohenjo Daro, and Sriram’s Johnny Gaddar.

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Updated: October 24, 2017