Rajiv Vijay Raghavan

Rajiv Vijay Raghavan Biography

Rajiv Vijay Raghavan is an award winning filmmaker associated with Malayalam movies and documentaries. He is best known for internationally acclaimed Malayalam movie, Margam, shown at different film festivals. It was his debut film, for which he handled the roles of producer, director as well as screenwriter. The film bagged 7 major Kerala State Film Awards and one national award. He has also directed several award-winning and socially relevant documentaries. He has been regular in international film festivals held in the first half of 2000s.

Rajiv Vijay Raghavan was born on 29 May 1958 in Kottayam, Kerala as the son of Remani and K. Ramarajan Nair. He was active in politics and literature during his college days at Kottayam. He also served as a council member of the University Students Union of Kerala University during 1977-78. He graduated in Commerce from the University of Kerala, and then enrolled at FTII Pune in 1979. He was a student of Pune Film Institute till 1981, after which he got into banking. He worked with Canara bank for 10 years since 1981.

He also worked as an assistant to renowned filmmaker G. Aravindan in 6 films in the 1980s while he was working in banking sector. Occasionally he also directed a few documentaries. His first documentary Sister Alphonsa of Bharananganam was made in the year 1986, followed by Kesari in 1992, Ruin of the Commons in 1993, Nirmithi in 1994 and Seeds of Malabar in 1996. He made his secondary documentary film only after resigning his banking job in 1991. After that he completely switched over to the world of films. His movie, Margam was released in 2003, which earned him international acclaim. The movie starred Nedumudi Venu, Meera Krishna and Shobha Mohan in lead roles.

Published: February 15, 2019

Updated: February 15, 2019