R. Rathnavelu

R. Rathnavelu is an Indian cinematographer who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films. His work in films such as Sethu, Nandhaa, Vaaranam Aayiram, Enthiran, 1: Nenokkadine, Rangasthalam and Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy garnered recognition.^[1]^[2] He has garnered three Filmfare Awards South, the Vijay Awards, the Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four SIIMA Awards and the Kalaimamani Award bestowed by the Tamil Nadu state government for his work.^[3]^[4]

Education

Rathnavelu graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and completed a three year Diploma in Film Technology in cinematography from the M.G.R. Government Film and Television Training Institute. He went on to assist cinematographer Rajiv Menon, for Mani Rathnam's Bombay.^[5]

Year	Film	Language	Notes
1997	Aravindhan	Tamil	^[6]
1998	Sandhippoma
1999	Sethu		Cinema Express Award for Best Cinematographer
2001	Nandhaa		Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer - South Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer
2002	Bagavathi
2003	Jayam
2003	Thirumalai
2004	Arya	Telugu
2004	Perazhagan	Tamil
2005	Maayavi
2005	February 14
2006	Cyanide	Kannada
2007	Jagadam	Telugu
2008	Gaalipata	Kannada
2008	Vaaranam Aayiram	Tamil	Nominated—Vijay Award for Best Cinematographer
2010	Enthiran		Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer - South Vijay Award for Best Cinematographer
2012	Podaa Podi		1 song only
2013	David	Hindi
2013	Haridas	Tamil
2014	1: Nenokkadine	Telugu	SIIMA Award for Best Cinematographer – Telugu
2014	Lingaa	Tamil	^[7]
2015	Kumari 21F	Telugu
2016	Brahmotsavam
2017	Khaidi No. 150
2018	Rangasthalam		SIIMA Award for Best Cinematographer – Telugu Filmfare Award for Best Cinematographer – South Sakshi TV Movie Awards Best Cinematographer Zee Cine Awards Telugu Best Cinematographer Santosham Best Cinematographer Award
2019	Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy		Zee Cine Awards Telugu Best Cinematographer
2020	Sarileru Neekevvaru		SIIMA Award for Best Cinematographer – Telugu^[8]
2022	Etharkkum Thunindhavan	Tamil	^[9]
2024	Indian 2	Tamil	^[10]
2024	Devara: Part 1	Telugu	SIIMA Award for Best Cinematographer – Telugu^[11]
2026	Peddi †	Telugu	^[12]

v t e SIIMA Award for Best Cinematographer – Telugu
2011–2020	P. R. K. Raju (2011) K. K. Senthil Kumar (2012) Prasad Murella (2013) R. Rathnavelu (2014) K. K. Senthil Kumar (2015) K. K. Senthil Kumar (2017) R. Rathnavelu (2018) Sanu Varghese (2019) R. Rathnavelu (2020)
2021–present	C. Ram Prasad (2021) K. K. Senthil Kumar (2022) Bhuvan Gowda (2023) R. Rathnavelu (2024)

v t e Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Cinematographer
1968–1980	P. N. Sundaram (1968) Marcus Bartley (1969) Amirtham (1970) — (1971) — (1972) — (1973) — (1974) — (1975) — (1976) Babu (1977–78) A. Somasundaram, Nallusamy / Gnanasekar, Tiwary (1978–79) B. S. Lokanath (1979–80) Ashok Kumar (1980–81)
1981–2000	B. Kannan (1981–82) Soumendu Roy (1982–83) — (1984) — (1985) — (1986) — (1987) Ajayan Vincent (1988) Ashok Kumar (1989) Abdul Rahman (1990) Raghunatha Reddy (1991) Santosh Sivan (1992) M. C. Shekar (1993) Jeeva (1994) Santosh Sivan (1995) Arthur A. Wilson (1996) Thangar Bachan (1997) Annadurai (1998) Ilavarasu (1999) Ananda Kuttan (2000)
2001–present	R. Rathnavelu (2001) Arjun Jena (2002) N. K. Ekambaram (2003) B. Kannan (2004) R. D. Rajasekhar (2005) Ravi Varman (2006) Nirav Shah (2007) Arthur A. Wilson (2008) Manoj Paramahamsa (2009) Santosh Sivan / V. Manikandan (2010) Balasubramaniem (2011) M. Sukumar (2012) Siddharth (2013) Nirav Shah (2014) Ramji (2015)