Sabu Cyril

Sabu Cyril was born on January 27th in Kerala’s Kozhikode district.

He is a production designer in the Indian movie industry. Earlier, production designers were called as art directors.

He resides in Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai.

He was brought up in Kerala itself. He did his schooling from the same place and then went to Chennai to do his graduation in the Government College of Fine Arts, which was earlier known as Government School of Arts and Crafts. He did his Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication from 1980 to 1985.

He worked part time as a graphic designer for names like Taj Hotels Group, Madura Coats and Welcome Hotels, in the period 1982 to 1988.

His career in art direction began in the year 1988. Sabu has worked in commercial films in the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada film industries. The director has also worked in over 480 advertisements. He has directed around three teleserials.

He started out with commercial advertisements and then moved to films. His career in movies started with the Malayalam flick, Iyer the Great, in 1990. It was a psycho-thriller film. He worked as the 2nd unit director under the guidance of Bhadran. The film was successful and also won a National Award.

In 1991, his tally of movies in Malayalam increased. ‘ Amaran Amaran is an Indian art director who works for the >> Read More... ’, Uncle Bun, and ‘Adwaytham’ were some of them. In Uncle Bun, he designed the special costumes for the lead actor, ‘ Mohanlal Mohan Lal is the Super Star of the Malayalam film >> Read More... ’. The film caused high anticipations among the audience because of Mohanlal’s appearance. However, it failed to impress the audience, but the technical aspect of the film was well appreciated.

In 1994, Cyril was part of the film Thenmavin Kombath. It was a musical rom-com. His work was loved by the audience. It got him the National Film Award in the category of Best Production Design. The Kerala government also honored him with the Kerala State Film Award in the category of Best Art Director.

In 1996, ‘Kaalapani’ was made by ‘ Priyadarshan Priyadarshan Soman Nair is a famous Director, Prod >> Read More... ’. The movie went on to garner 3 National Awards. Sabu got the recognition for the Best Art Direction. Kerala State Film Awards also honored him in the same category.

Cyril forayed into Bollywood with the movie ‘ Cheluvi Cheluvi is being telecasted on Suvarna TV from Mon >> Read More... ’, in 1992. Most memorable works of the art director in Hindi include ‘ Yuva Click to look into! >> Read More... ’, Hey Ram Click to look into! >> Read More... , Om Shanti Om Click to look into! >> Read More... , ‘ Aladin Click to look into! >> Read More... ’, etc. All these movies got him the National Film Award honors in the category for Best Production.

In 2015, Sabu worked on the movie ‘Baahubali’, which was a massive blockbuster. He considers the movie as his most challenging project.

Other than working in the film business, he also designed the stage of the prestigious Miss World pageant in 1996.

Sabu’s alma mater, the University of Madras, honored him with the Best Outgoing Student Award in 1985. He is also the recipient of the Kalavedi Award.