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.[1]
In the early 1990s, Matthan started his own production company in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai called Cinematt Pictures Pvt Ltd.[citation needed] The company, which also involved Matthan's brother[citation needed] George, released its first feature film entitled Sarfarosh in 1999. Matthan began work on Sarfarosh in 1992. Seven years were spent[citation needed] on the research, pre-production, and production of the film until it was finally released to both critical and commercial success.[2]
The reviewer for Filmfare rated the film four stars out of five and wrote about Matthan, "Although this is his first film, director John Mathew Matthan draws perfectly crafted outputs from his entire cast."[3]
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 (2005).[4] Although critically acclaimed, the film did not fare too well at the box office.[citation needed]
