B. Lenin
Lenin during documentary film shoot at the Chavvara Hills, Kerala.
Born	Bhimsingh Lenin (1947-08-15) 15 August 1947 (age 76)
Nationality	Indian
Occupation(s)	Film editor, director, writer
Years active	1966–present
Relatives	A. Bhimsingh (father)

B. Lenin born as Bhimsingh Lenin is an Indian film editor, writer and director who works in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films. The son of Tamil film maker A. Bhimsingh, Lenin entered the film industry as an assistant editor and went on to work in numerous projects before making his debut as an independent editor with Mahendran's Uthiripookkal (1979). In the mid 1980s, Lenin started jointly working with his long-time assistant V. T. Vijayan and the duo has so far edited over a hundred films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films, apart from an English film, Eli My Friend.^[1]

As of 2017, Lenin has won five National Film Awards, including the awards for Best Direction and Best Editing. He was the chairman of the Film Federation of India of India in 2011.

Biography

Lenin was born in a Bondil Rajput family consisting of eight children. His father A. Bhimsingh was a well known director in Tamil and Hindi films.^[2] Lenin started his career as an associate director of his father and assisted in editing many of his films.^[3] He also had experience as a lab technician and sound engineering department as well.^[3]

After several films working as an assistant, Lenin first worked independently on Kalank, a Fiji-based production, in 1978.^[4] He made his debut as an independent editor in Indian cinema with the 1979 Tamil film Uthiripookkal which was directed by Mahendran. Although he started as an independent editor, he later associated himself with his assistant V. T. Vijayan, and the duo went on to work together in a number of films during the 80s and 90s, including Nayakan, Geethanjali, Anjali and Kadhalan, which won them the National Film Award for Best Editing.^[5]

He made his directorial debut in 1983 with Ethanai Konam Ethanai Parvai (1983), and went on to direct four feature films and four non-feature films. His short film Knock-out (1992) was critically acclaimed as it went on to win the Islamia critics Award for Best Short Film at the Cairo International Film Festival.^[6] It also won the National Film Award for Best First Non-Feature Film of a Director for Lenin.^[7] The jury noted: "The director has given us a powerful insight into the labyrinth of the human mind faced with a disaster situation".^[7] Three years later, he directed his second short film tilted Kutravali, which won the Best Editing at the 43rd National Film Awards.^[6] In 2002, Lenin made Ooruku Nooruper. The film fetched him the Best Direction award, apart from winning the Best Regional Film (Tamil).^[3] The film dealt with capital punishment and was received with critical response.^[3][8] He has also directed a few TV serials including Solladi Sivasakthi.^[7] Lenin has held important positions such as the jury member of 57th National Film Awards (2010) and the chairman of Oscar selection committee (of FFI) in 2011.^[6][9] And now he is contributing heavily to the education society thorough various institutions like Pune Film Institute, Lenin now works along with a reputed film institute in Coimbatore named Clusters media college as its dean helping its students gain knowledge in real time professional movie making and guiding them through his wide experience in film industry^[10][11]

Selected filmography

As editor

As director

As actor

As assistant editor

Awards

National Film Awards

• 1992 – Knock-Out – Best First Non-Feature Film of a Director (Also producer)
• 1994 – Kaadhalan – Best Editing (shared with V. T. Vijayan)
• 1995 – Kutravali and Oodaha – Best Non-Feature Film Editing (shared with V. T. Vijayan)
• 2001 – Ooruku Nooruper – National Film Award for Best Direction
• 2001 – Ooruku Nooruper – National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

• 1988 – Best Editor
• 1994 – Best Editor – Kaadhalan
• 2010 – Best Editor – Namma Gramam

Kerala State Film Awards

• 1990 – Best Editor
• 1993 – Best Editor – Sopanam

Vijay Awards

• 2006 – Vijay Awards Special Jury Award for Editing

Rotary Club Of Madras East

• 2017 -Dronacharya Award