Santosh Sivan is one of the celebrated cinematographers of the Indian entertainment industry. He has been active in the industry for around four decades now and has worked in films such as Mani Ratnam's Iruvar, Dil Se.., Asoka, Navarasa, and Praramba, to name a few.

Owing to his spectacular cinematography skills, the filmmaker has been awarded 12 National Film Awards during his career. Now, the cinematographer has added another feather to his cap by becoming the first Indian to be conferred with Pierre Angenieux Tribute at the Cannes Film Festival.

Santosh Sivan creates history

Taking to his Facebook handle, Sivan confirmed the news by sharing a post that had an introductory text with a Festival De Cannes logo at the top. The text in the post read, "Ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan becomes the first Indian to be conferred with Cannes' Pierre Angenieux tribute. In 2013, Cannes started conferring the cinematographers with an award named after Pierre Angenieux, a pioneer of modern zoom lenses."

Santosh will be honoured with the tributary award on May 24, the penultimate day of the 77th edition of the festival.

What do we know about Santosh Sivan?

Apart from being a cinematographer, he is also a director, producer and actor known for his works in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi cinema. He started his career as a cinematographer in 1986 with the Malayalam film Nidhiyude Katha. As a director, Santosh won his first National Award in 1988 for the Story of Tiblu (1988). His film Halo was honoured at the 43rd National Film Awards as the Best Children's Film and Best Sound. As a cinematographer, he has won five National Film Awards – including four for Best Feature Film Cinematography.