Tarsem Singh

Tarsem Singh Dhandwar (born 26 May 1961), known professionally simply as "Tarsem" is an Indian film director who has worked on films, music videos, and commercials.He is a graduate of Art Center College of Design, located in Pasadena, California. He attended the Bishop Cotton School, India where he was the Captain of Ibbetson House in 1978 and was awarded the "Full School Blazer" for his outstanding performance in academics. He grew up in the Himalayas where his father sent him from Iran after foreseeing that the Mullahs would come into power and concluding that Iran would not be the best place to raise his child. Tarsem began his career directing music videos, including those of "Hold On" by En Vogue, "Sweet Lullaby" by Deep Forest and R.E.M.'s smash hit "Losing My Religion," the latter of which won Best Video of the Year at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. He has directed dozens of commercials for brands such as Nike and Coca-Cola. Tarsem's feature film directorial debut was The Cell (2000). His second film, The Fall, debuted at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically in the United States in 2008. His third film is called Immortals and will be released in 2011.