Shankar Mahadevan has a real story to inspire everyone, of all ages and nationalities.” – Deepti Sivan

In a candid interview, the acclaimed director of Decoding Shankar, Deepti Sivan talks to Sumita Chakraborty about her documentary on Shankar Mahadevan, why she made this film, her life as an actress and now director, and much more

- Sumita Chakraborty

Deepti Sivan, the director of Decoding Shankar, has been winning accolades and awards galore for her ‘on point’ 50-minute documentary film on Shankar Mahadevan. Produced by her film director husband Sanjeev Sivan, who is incidentally also illustrious cinematographer Santosh Sivan’s brother, the film is interesting because of the content but more so as unlike other biographical films, Deepti chose to have the story narrated by the protagonist himself – Shankar Mahadevan.

So Shankar talks about his childhood, the dilemma he faced before quitting his job, entering the world of jingles and, finally, making it as a musician. To give a proper perspective of the man himself, there are celebrity videos from Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Javed Akhtar, Gulzar Sahib, Farhan Akhtar, Aamir Khan, Zakir Hussain, Louis Banks, Pandit Jasraj and many others who speak about their association with Shankar Mahadevan.

Decoding Shankar was screened at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa and other festivals, including Stuttgart in Germany; Jecheon International Music and Film Festival, South Korea; and DC South Asian Film Festival, Gaithersburg. The film has won four awards recently at the Toronto International Women Film Festival, Indo French International Film Festival, Tokyo International Short Film Festival and Santa Monica Short Film Festival. Read on as Deepti elaborates why she felt she had to make this documentary and more.