Ramachandra Babu

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ramachandra Babu

• Ramachandra Babu was a topper in school who got double promotions more than once and finished school when he was 14 years old.

• His parents were from Alappuzha in Kerala and settled in Marudanthakam in Tamil Nadu.

• He considered various career options such as paper technology or chartered accountancy, but instead opted for motion picture photography at the Film Institute of India in Pune because of his interest in photography.

• The photo he took of his brother jumping from a low wall was his first published picture, which came in the Tamil Magazine, Kalki. This photo was also submitted for his FTII admissions.

  

• Some of his batchmates at the Film Institute were Jaya Bhaduri (now Jaya Bachchan), Danny Denzongpa, K. G. George, and Ravi Menon.

• Ramachandra Babu was a passionate reader, painter, poet, and blogger.

  

• He started his career as a cinematographer for the film Vidhyarthikale Ithile Ithile (1971) during the third year of his FTII course. The director, John Abraham, was his senior at FTII.

• His first shot was a close-up shot of actress Jayabharathi, who expressed concerns about his lighting techniques but was very happy to see the results.

• He had a close friendship with director K. G. George. He was the cinematographer for George’s directorial debut, Swapnadanam (1976).

  

• Ramachandra Babu’s first colour film was Dweepu (1977).

• He liked technology and was part of various technical advancements in cinematography in the Malayalam film industry during the four decades of his career.
• He developed a platform for short film creation named Cineku, a name inspired by Haiku, a genre of short poems.

• He was the first to start working with the cinemascope film for the film Alauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum. However, the credit of the first cinemascope film in South India was lost to another film as its release got delayed.

• He was the cinematographer of Padayottam (1982), the first 70mm film in Malayalam.

  

• Some of the popular Malayalam films for which he has done the cinematography are Rathinirvedam (1978), Chamaram (1980), and Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989).

• Some of the popular Tamil films for which he has done the cinematography are Ore Vaanam Ore Bhoomi (1979), Paadum Vaanampadi (1985), and Pagal Nilavu (1985).

• He was the founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC).

• He was the cinematographer of the English language film Beyond the Soul (2002) and the Arabic film Al-Boom (2006).

• He was the cinematographer for over 130 films in different languages.

• His book, Celluloid Swapnatakan, was an autobiography of his cinematography career and was published by Mathrubhumi Publication in December 2019.

  

• It was during a location hunt in Kozhikode for his directorial debut, a 3-D film, Professor Dinkan, that he passed away due to cardiac arrest. He was cremated with full State honours at the electric crematorium Santhi Kavadam at Thycaud.  ^[4]The Hindu