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John Mathew Matthan is an Indian filmmaker from the southern state of Kerala. He is known for his 1999 Bollywood film Sarfarosh, starring Aamir Khan and Naseeruddin Shah
John started his career as an assistant director on the epic movie Gandhi, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough. Also working on Gandhi was Govind Nihlani, who Matthan would later assist for several films before shifting to directing advertisements.
In the early 1990s, Matthan started his own production company in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai called Cinematt Pictures Pvt Ltd. The company, which also involved Matthan's brother George, released its first feature film entitled Sarfarosh in 1999. Matthan began work on Sarfarosh in 1992. Seven years were spent on the research, pre-production, and production of the film until it was finally released to both critical and commercial success.
After Sarfarosh, Matthan started working on a script which involved the issue of brain drain. However, after the tragedy of 9/11, the script lost its pertinence and Matthan moved on to another idea that germinated in the form of Shikhar. Although critically acclaimed, the film did not fare too well at the box office.
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