babu(t.r.) subramaniam

BIOGRAPHY

Lakshmi Films – Babu (T.R.) Subramaniam
816 South Genesee Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036 Phone: (213) 509-0468; Fax: (323) 933-1435 email: lakshmifilms@gmail.com

Family
Babu Subramaniam, has been married to his wife, Sylvia for over thirty-three years and has two daughters – Natasha Sofia, a freelance filmmaker and a graduate from Cal Arts, Leela Maria, a graduate in Voice/Opera from the Manhattan School Of Music and presently under contract with the Bavarian Opera in Munich, Germany, and a Son – Tagore Olivier, a graduate from Boston University Law School and now a practicing lawyer at the Matern Law Group in Manhattan Beach, CA, for the past four years.

Education
Babu graduated from S.I.E.S. College in Bombay, India; advanced his studies in film at The New School and NYU in New York City.

Film Career
After finishing graduate school, Babu supported himself by working as a
Production Assistant, Script Supervisor and Assistant Director in the Bombay film industry. His early initiation was on 8mm films working with his teenage writer/director/actor friend, Hyder Ali. He subsequently worked under one of India’s leading filmmakers, Producer/Director, Mahesh Bhatt, on over six theatrical features films. One of these films, “The Two Shades Of Blood” (“lahu ke do rang,”) produced by the late Shankar BC and Gul Anand took him to Hong Kong. In the mid seventies, Babu went on to work for Rizzoli Films, Italy, with one of India’s leading international star, Kabir Bedi, on films such as “Sandokan,” filmed in Malaysia, and “The Black Pirate,” shot on locations in Colombia, South America. He subsequently headed to New York City for advance film studies. He produced and directed his first short film “The Big Apple” during his last year at the New School in Manhattan. In the late seventies, Babu continued to live in New York City and worked as an Assistant Director for the late Italian Director Sergio Corbucci (Tarantino’s influence for Django Unchained) on spaghetti westerns such as “Super Fuzz,” “Odds and Evens,” and “Hands Off The Island,” filmed in Florida with stars such as Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Ernie Borgnine and Joanne Dru. He later moved to Hollywood, California, on being accepted to the membership of the Director’s Guild of America West to further his career as an Assistant Director.

On arriving in Hollywood, Babu began making the rounds and had the good
fortune of meeting with one of Hollywood’s most reputable production supervisors, Cyrus Yavneh. Cyrus was wrapping a 16-hour mini-series entitled “The Winds of War,” for Paramount and was about to begin pre-production on a film entitled “Choices.” He was impressed with Babu and immediately hired him as a 2nd Assistant Director for the film. Babu subsequently went on to work with Cyrus on numerous Features, TV Movies and Series.
In the early eighties, he worked for three years as a 2nd Assistant Director for
Dick Glassman and Jack Bender at 20th Century Fox TV on their series entitled “The Paper Chase,” starring John Houseman. A story he read in the New York Times involving an Indian journalist, Rajkumar Keswani and the Union Carbide Bhopal Gas tregedy, prompted Babu to immediately head out to Bhopal, India, to produce and direct a documentary on the Bhopal/Union Carbide tragedy. He currently is developing a theatrical feature film on the subject with Producer Michael Phillips. He subsequently moved on to work for Michael Nesmith and Cyrus on “Television Parts,” for NBC.
In the mid eighties, Babu landed at Universal to work on a sci-fi series entitled
“The Misfits of Science,” starring the late Dean Paul Martin and Courtney Cox. He then moved over to MGM to work on “The Man Who Fell To Earth,” for Bobby Roth.
In the late eighties, Babu was an Assistant Director on one of the most watched
event on Television – the final season of “Hill Street Blues.” He became one of the most sought after Assistant Directors in the business. The late Gene Roddenberry hired him to work on his new series “Star Trek – The Next Generation, ” for Paramount TV. The late Michael Schoenbrun, who was then head of Paramount Television, was so impressed with Babu that he promoted him to First Assistant Director on the series. He subsequently went on to work as First A.D. with Steve Tisch and Kenny Ortega on “Dirty Dancing,” and with Tim Reed on “Snoops.”
In the early nineties, Babu hooked up with Betty Thomas, John Landis and Kevin
Bright on “Dream On, ” a series for HBO. Having now worked extensively in episodic, he moved over to Theatrical Features, TV Movies, Mini-series and pilots and worked on projects such as the mini-series “Son of the Morning Star” by Melissa Mathison, “Soul Thief” and “In the best Interests of the Children” movies for Television directed by Michael Rhodes and the feature, “Heart Condition,” produced by Steve Tisch with Denzel Washington and Bob Hoskins.
In the mid nineties, Babu’s transition to features led him to work on “The
Untamed Heart” and “Home Of Our Own,” films produced and directed by Tony Bill who then recommended Babu to Dennis Hopper for “Chasers.” He continued on with films such as “The Cemetary Club,” “Money For Nothing” and “Royce.”
In Feb, 1994, Rod Holcomb, who directed “Royce,” in Hungary with Babu as his
First Ast. Director, invited him to work on the Television pilot of “ER” produced by John Wells for Warner Bros TV/Amblin. Babu continued to work on “ER,” as a First
Assistant Director for over eight years servicing directors like Quentin Tarantino, John Wells, Mimi Leder, Chris Chulack, Jonathan Kaplan, Ken Kwapis and many others. Babu continued on to CHEETAH GIRLS-AN INDIAN ADVENTURE for the

Disney Channel filmed entirely in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, from Jan’08 thru April’08 following which, he went on to work for Dreamworks TV/TNT on a pilot entitled “FALLING SKIES” in Toronto, Canada. His recent projects have included working with Ken Kwapis on OUTSOURCED for NBC-Universal TV, Michael Kattleman on MEMPHIS BEAT (two seasons) for Warner-Horizon, David Manson and Adam Arkin on FX/FTVS entitled “OUTLAW COUNTRY,” with Sanaa Hamri on VH1’s HIT THE FLOOR, Ryan Murphy’s “THE NEW NORMAL” for NBC, with Michael Lehmann on “BETAS” for Amazon Prime, Duane Adler of StepUp fame on HEARTBEATS, a musical shot in India earlier last year, a pilot entitled ZOOBIQUITY for Fox directed by Kevin Brey in 2016 and having just wrapped CODE BLACK for Michael Seitzman and David Von Ancken, an hour dramatic series for CBS during the 2016-2017 season. He is presently in active development on projects entitled “Smuggling for Gandhi,” “The Third Sex,” “Burning Fire” aka “Feeding Frenzy,” “Itsu Mademo,” “Passage Against The Tides,”( a 13-part limited mini-series) about the Punjabi(Sikh)/Mexicans set in the Americas of the early 1900s and TULIA (a theatrical feature) based on Nate Blakeslee’s non-fiction book to produce in 2017-18 with his partner and friend Paresh Ghelani.

Babu has directed multiple episodes of “ER” and has also directed episodes of
“ONE TREE HILL,”, “THE DIVISION,” “THIRDWATCH,” “ED” and “STRONG MEDICINE.” Babu was invited by the Artwallah Festival to direct a one-act play entitled “Chaos Theory,” during the summer of 2003. He continues to stay connected with his directing craft having just completed a workshop with Larry Moss on working with actors. He has received five DGA nominations and won three for his work on “ER.” Babu is presently repped by Ben Reder at Reder & Feig.