He is the son of the famous documentary photographer, Jayakumar. He completed his filmaking cource from Adayar Film Institute with a gold medal and further went on to work with renowned cinematographer, Jayanan Vincent. He made his directorial debut with the film, Souryam (2008) and in 2011, Siva made his debut as a director in Tamil cinema with Siruthai, a remake of S. S. Rajamouli's Telugu action masala 'Vikramarkudu'. His other movies include Ammunnodu, Daruvu, and Sankham. Siva has worked with renowned actor Ajith Kumar who is commonly called as Thala, in movies like Veeram (2014), Vedhalam (2015) and Vivegam in 2017. His 2017 project as a director includes the Tamil drama film Natpuna Ennanu Theriyuma.