John Sankaramangalam


John Sankaramangalam was an Indian filmmaker and former director of the FTII, Pune. He has also served the positions of vice-chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, principal of St. Joseph College of Communication and as a jury member of the International Film Festival of India. He was an executive member of CILECT.
He was a renowned teacher in filmmaking and recipient of numerous awards including National Film Award, Kerala State Film Award and Nargis Dutt Award.

Early life

Sankaramangalam was born on 16 July 1934, in Eraviperoor of Pathanamthitta district. He was the son of Thaiparambil Sankaramangalam T.O. Chacko and Annamma. After completing his schooling from St. John's School, Eraviperoor, he joined St. Berchmans College, Changanassery and later MCC for higher studies.

Film career

After becoming a teacher at MCC for a period, Sankaramangalam joined FTII to learn script writing and film direction in 1962. Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan was his classmate.
Sankaramangalam entered film industry by writing the screenplay for the Tamil film Jayasree. His first directorial venture was Janmabhoomi which was released on 1969. The film won Nargis Dutt Award and Kerala State Film Award. In 1977, he directed Samadhi, a documentary film about B. K. S. Iyengar to help a cinematography student. The film won him Rajat Kamal for Best Experimental Film at 25th National Film Awards.
In 2003, Sankaramangalam won the Chalachitra Prathibha award from Kerala Film Critics Association for his contribution to Malayalam cinema as a director.

Selected filmography