Karthik Ganesh is a Director of Photography, based in Mumbai, India. He joined the Film & Television Institute of India, Pune in 2004, and has been working as an independent cinematographer since 2009. He has worked on various Feature films, Shorts, Commercials, Documentaries, and Cine-plays.

His first two projects were the series ‘Powder’ and the feature film ‘Aurangzeb’, both directed by Atul Sabharwal for YRF. His latest completed project is the series ‘Hiccups and Hookups’, directed by Kunal Kohli for Lionsgate International.

He is currently shooting a multi starrer Tamil film called Kaagangal / Crows.

Over the years, Karthik has developed a distinct visual style with a keen emphasis on cinematic language and form. Towards that end, he has worked with some very gifted and accomplished directors and he actively pursues collaborating with unique voices within and without the industry.

The very personal journey of ‘image-making’ began, when his father gifted him a Zenit SLR film camera. It opened up the possibilities of viewing his world in a refreshingly new way.

Inanimate things came to life, elements that went unnoticed till that moment, became his allies! The blazing Chennai sun, known for its heat, turned into a warm source of light. The burst of colours in the neighbourhood, the smoke, haze, shadow, dust…all, were now seen in a new light!

The Chennai he thought he knew, and the Chennai he saw now, was very different from each other.

This romance with images, soon took him to the forests of South India, where he worked in a film on the King Cobras for BBC. The first-hand experience of witnessing the magic of moving images, the play of light, the precise camera movements, all coming together to narrate a story, made him plunge headlong into filmmaking & he joined the Film and TV Institute of India (FTII), Pune where he honed his skills as a cinematographer and more importantly as a visual storyteller.

He believes that every story has a life of its own and demands to be told in its own unique way. The various formats of cameras exist, only as this amazing tool, to tell a story in the best possible way.

For instance, in a world dominated by digital cameras, he chose the medium of 'Film' to shoot the feature film, 'Aurangzeb', because the script had an old-world charm and an opulence reminiscent of the 80’s, written into it.

And for the film Side A Side B, about a young couple on the verge of their first break up, he used a Mobile Phone to tell the story, to reflect the freedom and the carefree attitude that comes with youth.

His curiosity about the medium, formats and the evolving storytelling techniques, helps him adapt to new cameras and technologies, that gets updated on a regular basis.

A case in point, is the fact that he is one of the first cinematographers in India to use the then revolutionary ‘RED One’ camera, the worlds’ first ‘4K Digital Camera to shoot on RAW’.

That time, most of the feature films were shot on film cameras, and the general awareness about digital cameras was very low. To add it to, there was not much help available online, like it is today. What all these meant was that, it was also an empty canvas waiting to be drawn upon! And what an exciting 200 days of shoot it turned out to be!!!

To share this unique experience, he was approached by the Cinematographers Combine, India, a collective of DoP’s from Mumbai, to write an article about this new kid on the block, which he gladly did.

In addition to the Hindi industry, Karthik has worked in the Tamil industry and has also shot a Bengali film in Bangladesh.

For the Tamil film Netrikann starring Nayantara, he set the visual template and shot the film until early 2020. The shooting resumed later during covid and was completed in 2021 by a DoP based in Chennai.

Karthik is looking forward to Kunal Kohli’s upcoming film, Desi Sherlock starring Bobby Deol, for which he has shot the India and Thailand portions.

For his complete list of works, please check out his IMDB link