Tarsem Singh

Tarsem Singh Dhandwar (born May 26, 1961), known professionally simply as "Tarsem," is an Indian director who has worked in film, music videos, and commercials.

He is a graduate of Art Center College of Design, located in Pasadena, California. He attended the Bishop Cotton School, India where he was the House Captain of Ibbetson House in 1978 and was awarded the "Full School Blazer" in Academics for his outstanding performance. He grew up in the Himalayas where his father sent him from Iran after foreseeing that the Mullahs would come into power and concluding that Iran would not be the best place to raise his child. His father was a pilot.

Tarsem began his career directing music videos, including "Hold On" by En Vogue, "Sweet Lullaby" by Deep Forest and the music video for R.E.M.'s smash hit "Losing My Religion," which won Best Video of the Year at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.

He has also directed several commercials, including one for Nike. [http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/may/26singh.htm]

Tarsem's feature film directorial debut was "The Cell" (2000), which starred Jennifer Lopez. His second film, "The Fall", debuted at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically in the United States in 2008.

His films are noted for their operatic elements—lush colors, desert landscapes, horses, extensive costume design and sets, exotic locations and lack of digital animation.

Further reading

* Henry Keazor/Thorsten Wuebbena: Video thrills the Radio Star - Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, Analysen, Bielefeld 2005 (see also: http://www.vttrs.de), p. 256 - 260

External links

*imdb name|id=0802248|name=Tarsem Singh
* [http://www.mvdbase.com/tech.php?first=&last=Tarsem Tarsem Singh] at the Music Video DataBase
* [http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/05/films-tarsem-si.html A look at Tarsem Singh and "The Fall"] SAJAforum.org
* [http://www.oldcottonians.org Old Cottonians Association]
* [http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/node/369150]