BIO PROFILE – SAB JOHN EDATHATTIL Sab John Edathattil, is one of South India’s leading storytelling and screenwriting voices. Sab John was born in 1958 at Alappuzha in the Southern Indian state of Kerala, to Simon Antony and Marykutty. His father was a businessman, mother a teacher turned Regional Deputy Director of Public Instruction of Kerala. He has two brothers: Cdr. JAE Simon of the Indian Navy (retired) and Dr. Rouben George, Nephrologist who is working in Kuwait as a State Consultant. Though graduated in Commerce, Sab John’s accounting career did not last long as he subsequently aligned himself with screenwriting at an early stage of his career. His screenwriting took off after scripting a remarkable Malayalam film for Padmashri. Kamal Hassan, “Chanakyan”, the movie become a super-duper hit with its revenge plot and interesting climax, thus established John as a commendable screenwriter in the South Indian film industry. During his three decades of screenwriting career, Sab John had written about 30 filmed screenplays. Some of the major projects on his roster have included Guna, Vyooham, Gandhari, Suryamanasam, Highway, Jillunu Oru Kadhal, Mayilpeelikkavu, Priyam, Kuruthippunal and Chanakyan. Guna starring Kamal Hassan was a milestone project for John, the movie talks about a mentally ill person who has unadulterated love for a fictitious character name Abirami, the film was not only succeeded commercially but also had an excellent blend of Kamal’s acting, maestro Ilayaraja’s music and John’s screenplay. John narrated Guna’s character equivalent to Laila Majnu love story through his creative screenwriting skills. As a screenwriter, Sab John spins exhilaratingly complex, emotional and provocative tapestries of human lives under intense pressure. His films traverse a dazzling range of subject matters, characters and moods, yet share in common a visceral, often luminous, portrait of cinematic entertainment. In addition to screenwriter, John has also donned other roles like film making, acting, direction and production management. His commendable role in “Kuruthippunal” as Narasimhan has won him laurels for his outstanding delivery of acting performance. The film was produced by Padmashri Kamal Hassan and directed by P C Sreeram. John worked as the Line Producer for Kamal’s Hindi feature film “Chachi 420”. John is currently involved in four mainstream-movie-screenplays and three web-series content of four different Indian regional languages. He conducts training for corporate executives, university professors and students of professional courses on story-based-learning-teaching techniques and scenario-planning practices. John holds many positions including Chief Mentor at Screenwrite.in, India’s only screenwriting studio he had founded, and Loyola LIVE, a co-venture of Loyola College, Chennai. Also, John has been a jury of FICCI Frames Awards since 2008. He was Professor of screenwriting at L V Prasad Film and Television Academy, Chennai, too. John prefers to spare time working with young aspiring writers in India and propagates professional screenwriting through his much-acclaimed workshops and masterclasses. Unlike other screenwriting classes, Sab John is able to screen his own films starring leading actors like Kamal Hassan, Om Puri, Nassar, Girish Karnad, Raghuvaran, Charuhasan, Mammootty, Suryaa, Urmila Matondkar and many more. Also, John is passionate about demonstrating the principles & concepts of storytelling and screenwriting from the working writer’s perspective. From story design to character to dialogue to scene structure and all points in between, John takes you through the entire process and experience of writing your screenplay, as well as shows you on-screen (from his own experience) what works, what doesn’t work, what the industry looks for and more. John has spent around 30 years of screenwriting with an approximate of 32 produced screenplays, many teleplays and brand campaign scripts. In the tenure of 30 years, he has spent 11 years of teaching and sharing the principles of screenwriting. In his master workshops, John presents the unique ways of creating the strong-walls of a captivating screenplay and how he resolved the screenwriting problems of the films he had worked.

• published: 23 Feb 2020
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