Filmmaker · Product Builder · Seattle
I write and direct films, build independent consumer software, and lead product and engineering teams. Currently at Google. Previously spent 15 years at Microsoft.
A neo-noir crime thriller set in the Pacific Northwest, starring Padma Shri Vivekh and Charle. A retired detective visits his son in Seattle and investigates a string of disappearances in the neighborhood. Acquired for worldwide streaming distribution by Amazon Prime Video.
A quiet, privacy-first companion app for film lovers to capture viewing context, organize lifetime history, and understand personal taste. Built with a sovereign-data model across web, iOS, and Android.
Directed short films Alia and Cul De Sac, both official selections and award nominees at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle. Wrote and edited Borderline, winning Best Film at the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project. With Indus Creations, directed Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015) and produced stage productions from 2016 to 2024.
Two decades leading product and engineering teams. Currently leading cloud reliability strategy at Google; previously 15 years at Microsoft driving Power Platform monetization, Windows Insider creator programs, and core operating system fundamentals.
Filmmaker · Product Builder · Seattle
Leading product and engineering teams at Google, directing films in the Pacific Northwest, and building independent consumer software like Retake. Previously 15 years at Microsoft.
A retired detective travels to Seattle to reunite with his son, only to become entangled in an investigation across a snow-covered Pacific Northwest neighborhood. Starring Vivekh and Charle. Acquired for worldwide distribution by Amazon Prime Video.
A privacy-first companion app for film lovers to track and reflect on viewing history. Sovereign-data architecture.
Director. Official selections and award nominees at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle.
Writer & Editor. Won Best Film at the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project.
Leading cloud reliability product and engineering strategy across compute infrastructure.
Fifteen years spanning Power Platform monetization, Windows Insider creator programs, and core operating system fundamentals.
Directed Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015); producer across stage productions from 2016 to 2024.
Directorial debut feature film starring Padma Shri Vivekh and Charle. A retired detective visits his son in the Pacific Northwest and investigates a series of unexplained disappearances in the neighborhood. Acquired for worldwide distribution by Amazon Prime Video.
An independent, privacy-first companion app for film lovers to track and reflect on the cinema they experience. Built with an emphasis on calm design and sovereign personal data across web, iOS, and Android.
Directed Alia and Cul De Sac (official selections & nominees at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle). Wrote & edited Borderline (Winner Best Film, Seattle 48HFP). Directed Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015) and produced stage productions from 2016 to 2024 with Indus Creations.
Currently leading reliability strategy at Google Cloud. Spent 15 years at Microsoft across Power Platform monetization, Windows Insider developer and creator programs, and core operating system engineering.
Filmmaker and product builder. Leading product and engineering teams at Google; previously 15 years at Microsoft. Founder of Retake.
Writer, director, and producer. Pacific Northwest neo-noir thriller starring Padma Shri Vivekh and Charle. Acquired for worldwide distribution by Amazon Prime Video.
Solo founder and builder. A calm, privacy-first companion app for film lovers to capture viewing context, organize lifetime history, and understand personal taste.
Directed Alia and Cul De Sac, both official selections & nominees at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle. Wrote and edited Borderline, winning Best Film at the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project.
Leading product and engineering teams. Currently leading cloud reliability strategy at Google; previously 15 years at Microsoft driving Power Platform monetization and Windows Insider creator programs.
Board member of Seattle arts collective. Directed Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015) and produced stage productions from 2016 to 2024.
Filmmaker and product builder based in Seattle. Leading product and engineering teams, currently at Google. Previously spent 15 years at Microsoft. Founder of Retake.
| 2019 | Vellai Pookal (Feature) | Writer, Director & Producer. Neo-noir crime thriller starring Vivekh and Charle, filmed in Seattle. Acquired by Amazon Prime Video · IMDb → |
| Festivals | Alia & Cul De Sac (Shorts) | Director. Official selections & award nominees at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle. |
| Award | Borderline (Short) | Writer & Editor. Won Best Film at the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project 2025 ↗. |
| 2015 – 24 | Indus Creations (Stage & Film) | Directed Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015); producer across stage productions from 2016 to 2024 (Googly, Soora Samharam, Kadavul Varugiraar, Chevvai Dosham). Filmography → |
| 2025 – Pres. | Retake | Solo founder & builder. Privacy-first movie and TV companion across web, iOS, and Android. Sovereign personal data. retakelog.app. |
| 2022 – Pres. | Senior technical program management leading cloud reliability strategy across Compute Engine, GKE, and Serverless. | |
| 2007 – 2022 | Microsoft | 15 years spanning Power Platform monetization and self-service products, Windows Insider creator programs during Fall Creators Update, and core OS fundamentals. |
| M.S. | Computer Science | University of Illinois at Chicago |
| B.Tech | Information Technology | SSN College of Engineering, University of Madras |
| Patent | Search Suggestion Engine | US Patent for extensible search term suggestions (Microsoft) |
Rain drums against cedar shingles. In the evergreen Pacific Northwest, VIVEK ELANGOVAN balances two parallel disciplines: engineering planetary-scale cloud systems and directing feature crime cinema. Roots anchored in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram; resident of Bellevue, WA.
Whether directing a feature film with a crew of sixty in the Washington snow, or building products that serve millions at Google, the discipline is the same: find the truth, strip the excess, make it hold.
Multi-region telemetry streams across high-density consoles. Tens of millions of container instances, virtual machines, and serverless invocations traverse the global fiber backbone every second. High-availability systems operating at planetary scale demand structural clarity, deep empathy for human behavior, and architecture that never folds under pressure.
Leading cloud reliability strategy across Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and Serverless infrastructure. Leading production-safety, data-protection, and AI-assisted reliability programs that keep mission-critical workloads upright through cascading dependencies.
From core operating system internals to enterprise application platforms. Fifteen years of engineering and product leadership shaping how hundreds of millions of developers, creators, and enterprise customers interact with software.
Fifteen formative years spanning Power Platform commercial monetization and enterprise billing, Windows Insider creator programs during the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and core operating system reliability engineering.
At midnight, the product builder returns to his first obsession: cinema. The whiteboards fill not with corporate roadmaps, but with local-first database schemas and frame ratios designed for cinephiles who refuse to have their taste monetized by ad algorithms.
An independent, privacy-first cinema companion app for film lovers. Local-first personal tracking across web, iOS, and Android with sovereign data architecture. Built at the exact intersection of film obsession and system design.
Long before founding Retake, the instinct to build and ship independently took root in early consumer app ecosystems. An early foray into educational software demonstrated the power of zero-to-one utility:
Founded a three-person team and launched an educational utility that scaled organically to approximately 500,000 downloads and was adopted and pre-installed on school district computers across 22 US schools.
Snow blankets the Cascade foothills. A sixty-person film crew hustles between sub-zero setups on location in Washington State. A retired detective walks the white perimeter of a suburban cul-de-sac.
Neo-noir crime thriller filmed entirely on location in Seattle and Washington State. Starring Padma Shri Vivekh and Charle. A retired Indian police detective travels to a snowy Pacific Northwest suburb and unravels a complex web of local disappearances. Theatrical release followed by worldwide acquisition and streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Over 15 independent short films written, directed, and produced under uncompromising creative constraints. Highlighted festival honors and competition laureates:
Directed Cul De Sac (2024, tense silent thriller) and Alia (psychological drama) — both official selections and award nominees at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle.
Written and edited under high-stakes 48-hour constraints. Awarded Winner Best Film at the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project 2025; selected to represent Seattle at Filmapalooza 2026.
Directed humanitarian short Odam (in partnership with Asha for Education) and mystery thriller Navam (awarded BAFA Best Film, Best Art Direction, and Best Supporting Actress).
Ten years of live theater direction and production in the Pacific Northwest. Complex ensemble staging, original scripts, and cultural non-profit storytelling with Indus Creations:
Directed landmark Tamil stage play Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015). Produced major stage productions across a decade including Googly (2024), Soora Samharam (2023), Kadavul Varugiraar (2022), and Chevvai Dosham (2016).
Two decades directing feature cinema and stage productions in the Pacific Northwest while leading product and engineering teams at Google and Microsoft. Founder of Retake.
A quiet, privacy-first companion app for film lovers to log viewing context, cultivate history, and understand taste. Sovereign data across web, iOS, and Android.
Alia and Cul De Sac selected and nominated at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival. Borderline awarded Best Film at the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project.
Leading cloud reliability strategy at Google across compute and serverless. Previously 15 years at Microsoft leading Power Platform monetization, Windows Insider creator programs, and OS engineering.
Directed landmark play Chidambara Ragasiyam (2015) and produced major theatrical runs from 2016 to 2024.
