Biography for
Tarsem Singh More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

26 May 1961, India

Birth Name

Tarsem Dhandwar Singh

Mini Biography

Indian director Tarsem Singh is the son of an aircraft engineer. He was educated at Bishop Cotton Boy's School in Shimla and relocated to the USA to study business at Harvard and, significantly, film studies at the Art Center College of Design in California. Upon graduating he embarked on a career as a director of music videos, working with such artists as Suzanne Vega, En Vogue, Vanessa Paradis and, most notably, R.E.M.. Tarsem's video for their song 'Losing My Religion', went on to win six MTV Video Music Awards, including the coveted 'Video of the Year'.

As well, as music videos, Tarsem has directed some high profile television commercials, including the Pepsi "We Will Rock You" campaign, featuring Britney Spears, Pink and Beyoncé Knowles. He went on to make his feature film directorial debut with the visually striking The Cell (2000). Other films include The Fall (2006), Immortals (2011) and Mirror Mirror (2012).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Trade Mark

Colorful settings

Characters with elaborate costumes

Digitally blended practical and CG effects

Balancing practical and computer imagery effects

Trivia

Is a prominent commercial director with Radical Media; he directed music videos that were influenced by the work of the genius Sergei Parajanov.

He lived in London, Italy, Los Angeles and India.

He was attached to direct Nautica (2008) and Constantine (2005).

Graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

Personal Quotes

I saw a book in India titled Guide to Film Schools in America, and it shell-shocked me. It changed my life, because I thought you went to college to study something that your father loved and you hated. I told my father I wanted to study film and he said there was no way he was gonna let me do that. I made my way to Los Angeles, and made a film that won a scholarship to the Art Center College of Design. My father thought I was headed for Harvard. I called him and said, 'I want to study film,' and he said, 'You don't exist anymore'.

Anybody in Europe who tries to compete directly with Hollywood will die because they'll just spend more money on it. But things like Hindi cinema have evolved from a different angle, and they've survived because of it. In the west, for example, you don't mix opera and film. If someone is 44 he won't play himself as a 12 or 14-year-old, but he will in a Hindi movie. If he's fat and ugly, people will still call him beautiful. In opera you'd accept that, but you don't accept it in cinema. In the middle of a really serious situation, a dog can have a flashback in a Hindi movie. It is still played seriously, but in the west you wouldn't.