Siva Ananth (also credited as A. Sivakumar) is an Indian film writer, producer, lyricist, director and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Siva made his directorial debut with the Telugu film Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006). He later pursued career as a screenwriter, lyricist, executive producer and actor.
Siva Ananth was born in Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu and did his schooling in Tamil medium at O. V. C School (till SSLC), Manamadurai and Ramakrishna Mission (higher secondary), Salem. Then he enrolled for Industrial Engineering at BITS Pilani, Rajasthan in 1991 and graduated by 1995.[1] He pursued MS in Mass Communications with an ancillary in Film Theory at the University of Florida, US and graduated in 1997 after producing a thesis describing a comparative study of production technique in Hollywood and Indian Cinema.[1]
During his time at BITS Pilani, he took up script-writing and revealed his fascination with director Mani Ratnam's work in Roja had sparked an initial interest. After submitting his thesis, he contacted Mani Ratnam and secured a position as an assistant director after being asked to write a short story. The short story "Yogi" was also later published by journal Ananda Vikatan.[1]
Career
He joined Mani Ratnam's team halfway through the shoot of Dil Se.. (1998). His first day was spent working on the production of the song Chaiyya Chaiyya, and he was also assigned to help oversee the film's sound effects. His first film as an assistant director was Alaipayuthey (2000) and he worked alongside fellow apprentice Shaad Ali, in helping Madras Talkies complete the venture.[1] In 2001, he began his first individual project as a director, Acham Thavir starring Madhavan and Jyothika, and produced by Vikram Singh. Siva worked on the script alongside Selvaraj, with Ranjit Barot and Vinod signed as music composer and cinematographer, respectively.[2] However Singh's financial problems meant that the film was called off 20 days into shoot, despite the team holding a schedule in Syria.[1] Siva subsequently reverted to assisting Mani Ratnam for Aaytha Ezhuthu and Yuva (2004), while also working on directing commercials.[1]
During the making of Acham Thavir, Siva had become acquainted with Siddharth, who had served as an assistant director and the pair subsequently regularly discussed films. After becoming an actor, Siddharth recommended Siva to producer K. S. Rama Rao in 2005, to be the director of a venture that the pair were working on.[1] Subsequently, along with Siddharth and Kona Venkat, Siva helped developed the script for Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006), a Telugu language romantic comedy. The film also featured Siddharth, along with veteran Akkineni Nageswara Rao and three lead actresses, and released in January 2006. Described as a "sophisticated comedy film for multiplex crowds", it opened to mixed reviews and failed at the box office.[3][4] Siva moved on to assist V. Priya in writing the dialogues for Kannamoochi Yenada (2007), while also working with Mani Ratnam in Guru (2007). In 2010, it was reported that Siva would make a return to directing with a Hindi project titled Bloody Paki featuring Vivek Oberoi and Genelia D'Souza, but the film eventually did not materialise.[5][6]
In 2015, he appeared in a full-fledged acting role as Dulquer Salmaan's brother in Mani Ratnam's O Kadhal Kanmani. Alongside his commitments as an actor, Siva was also credited to be the head of post-production works and in the soundtrack, as an additional vocalist.[7]
From 2017 he started focusing more on screenwriting and film production. He is one of the writers of Sachin: A Billion Dreams, a 2017 Indian documentary sports film directed by James Erskine, and co-writer of the Tamil-language crime drama film Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (2018) directed by Mani Ratnam. Siva was co-writer, executive producer and played the role of Chezhiyan in Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. He is also co-writer and executive producer of Soorma (2018), a Hindi-language biographical sports drama film based on the life of hockey player Sandeep Singh, directed by Shaad Ali.
For the film Vaanam Kottattum (2020) directed by Dhana Sekaran, Siva ventured into writing lyrics. He wrote the lyrics to the film soundtrack in collaboration with musician Sid Sriram.[8]
Between 2019 and 2023, Siva was the "master mind behind Mani Ratnam"[9] as executive producer of Ponniyin Selvan: I and Ponniyin Selvan: II, the screen adaption of the Tamil language historical fiction novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy Ponniyin Selvan. The first film was released in theatres worldwide on 30 September 2022. Part two was released on 28 April 2023. Creatively, he contributed the lyrics of two songs in collaboration with A. R. Rahman. Siva has called PS his most challenging film to date.[10] His work as executive producer in this project was much acclaimed. Co-writer B. Jeyamohan dedicated his latest book to Siva, saying that “A great film like Ponniyin Selvan would not have been made without him. He was Mani Ratnam's principal assistant and the film's process producer. It is a business that normally requires a hundred hands and a thousand eyes.”[11]
Currently, Siva is one of the producers of the recently announced film with Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam which will be reaching the cinemas in 2024.[12]
