Issue 2, 2010 Volume 7 - Kodak
Issue 2, 2010 Volume 7 - Kodak
Issue 2, 2010 Volume 7 - Kodak
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<strong>Volume</strong> 7<br />
INSIDE<br />
Yash Chopra<br />
C. K. Muraleedharan<br />
R. Giri<br />
Pradip Chakravarty<br />
Amal Neerad<br />
Ravi Yadav<br />
Manoj Paramahamsa<br />
Anil Nair<br />
Raja Phadtare<br />
Attar Singh Saini<br />
Rahul Jadhav<br />
Archana Borhade<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> 2, <strong>2010</strong><br />
Master Kishen<br />
M. Venkatesan
1<br />
4<br />
7<br />
9<br />
11<br />
13<br />
15<br />
17<br />
19<br />
21<br />
24<br />
26<br />
27<br />
28<br />
<strong>Volume</strong> 7<br />
INSIDE<br />
Full Steam Ahead<br />
Veteran filmmaker and industry leader Yash<br />
Chopra, in a rare interview with Deepa Gahlot.<br />
Throw Out The Rulebook<br />
Deepa Deosthalee talks to hotshot DOP<br />
C.K. Muraleedharan about his ad work.<br />
Keeping Up With The Times<br />
DOP R. Giri talks to R.G. Vijayasarathy.<br />
Painting With Light<br />
Pradip Chakraborty tells Malabi Sen that he<br />
does not let problems affect the quality of<br />
his work.<br />
“The DOP should be like a<br />
meek wife”<br />
K B Venu met Amal Neerad at Kochi.<br />
A Finger in Every Pie<br />
Ravi Yadav talks to Manju Latha Kalanidhi<br />
about his dreams and ambitions.<br />
Shades of Dreams<br />
Divya K goes into creative details with DOP<br />
Manoj Paramahamsa.<br />
Second Time Lucky<br />
Anil Nair shares the ups and downs in his<br />
career with K.B. Venu.<br />
Hard Work Pays<br />
Raja Phadtare tells Johnson Thomas that he<br />
considers the industry as his true home.<br />
Success is a State of Mind<br />
Attar Singh Saini tells Deepa Deosthalee that<br />
he is not disheartened by the fate of some of<br />
his films.<br />
Flagged Off<br />
Rahul Jadhav shares his career plans with<br />
Deepa Deosthalee.<br />
Young Guns - Bright Spark<br />
Divya K meets aspiring cinematographer<br />
Archana Borhade in Chennai.<br />
Young Guns - Child Prodigy<br />
R.G.Vijayasarathy tracks the achievements<br />
of Master Kishan.<br />
Documenting A Legend<br />
M. Venkatesan talks about the making of his<br />
biopic on Gemini Ganesan.<br />
FOREWORD<br />
Managing Editor: Suresh Iyer<br />
Editor: Deepa Gahlot<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> 2, <strong>2010</strong><br />
The first few months of the year have been difficult for the film industry, what with<br />
competition from cricket and off-screen glamour. In spite of all this ,one must admit, we<br />
did see a lot of movies being released.<br />
Industry leader Yash Chopra, in a rare and candid interview, foresees tough times ahead.<br />
Though the Hindi film industry is growing at a rapid pace and spreading its wings<br />
overseas, there is also serious competition for local films from big-budget Hollywood<br />
extravaganzas. Proceed with caution is his advice.<br />
Images goes around the country, taking a look at behind-the-scenes of filmmaking in<br />
every region, and continues the series on Young Guns..<br />
Wishing you enjoyable summer vacations and happy reading...<br />
Suresh S Iyer<br />
Country Business Manager<br />
Entertainment Imaging<br />
Design and layout: Roopak Graphics, Mumbai<br />
Printing: Amruta Print Arts, Mumbai<br />
Printed and Published by: Suresh Iyer on behalf of <strong>Kodak</strong> India Private Limited, at Mumbai.<br />
Do write in with ideas, suggestions, comments to kodakimages@rediffmail.com<br />
This is an independent magazine.<br />
Views expressed in the articles are those of authors alone.<br />
<strong>Volume</strong> 7, <strong>Issue</strong> 2, <strong>2010</strong><br />
Cover Credit: Yash Chopra<br />
Courtesy: Yash Raj Films<br />
Full Steam<br />
Ahead<br />
Veteran filmmaker and industry leader<br />
Yash Chopra, in a rare interview with<br />
Deepa Gahlot talks of Bollywood and its<br />
place in the world<br />
On what works:<br />
The Mumbai film industry has already gone global, but there are<br />
different yardsticks for different films. For instance, Karan Johar's latest<br />
film My Name is Khan was distributed by Fox, it was screened at Berlin, it<br />
had a red carpet premiere at Abu Dhabi. It had a wide release and<br />
entered some territories where Hindi films are not normally released.<br />
Because of Fox, it did very well overseas. On the other hand 3 Idiots was<br />
not taken up by any global distributor and it was the biggest hit in India,<br />
and also did very good business overseas.<br />
On why dubbing is a harmful trend:<br />
Avatar was a great film and is a great threat to Indian films. Dubbing of<br />
Hollywood films into Indian languages is eating into the domestic film<br />
business in a big way. For such big special effects films, with 300-400<br />
million dollar budgets, dubbing costs peanuts. We should see how to<br />
fight this threat. We have to safeguard our industry. Maybe dubbing of<br />
Hollywood films should not be allowed.<br />
On Co-productions:<br />
A lot of co-productions happened in the last two years, but I don’t think<br />
it has been a very happy experience for the overseas people; it may have<br />
been happy for the Indian producers. When a film does not do well, it<br />
hurts the person who spends money and takes it up.<br />
Co-productions with big studios can be done as far as money is<br />
concerned… otherwise, we are poles apart culturally.<br />
After so many years and much advancement there are certain things our<br />
audiences will never accept. True, there are taboo subjects that people<br />
are making in India and some audiences are accepting them too—those<br />
‘Hindish’ (Hindi-English) films without songs, which young people are<br />
accepting. Films like LSD and Dev D have also done well, but by and<br />
large, I don’t think we can make films, that can please both<br />
audiences—here and abroad.<br />
“We are losing a lot of things in our culture.<br />
In our music, the soul is gone…<br />
the Indian melody is gone.”<br />
1
On promoting films:<br />
My Name Is Khan and 3 Idiots were good films, I don’t think just<br />
promotion can make a film successful. In India, now everyone is<br />
promoting films in a big way, with all kinds of gimmicks, but all that<br />
doesn’t translate into success, if the film is bad. It’s unthinkable, the<br />
money that it spent on promotion, and after all that if the film does not<br />
do well, it pinches.<br />
All these years not more than seven or eight percent films were<br />
successful; and I am talking success-failure in terms of money only.<br />
Those days of jubilees are gone. Today, lakhs is nothing, everything is in<br />
crores and how much comes back? Business is not more than two<br />
weeks, and of this 70 percent is in the first week. If you miss the first<br />
week for some reason, you miss the business completely.<br />
On new revenue models:<br />
There are other avenues of business… but now, the physical format of<br />
music is almost finished. Money is spent on the promotion of music, but<br />
it is not recovered. Other forms like internet and mobile downloads have<br />
appeared, but they are not making as much as we used to make with<br />
only music sales. Now, I am told, even mobile downloads are decreasing.<br />
On globalization:<br />
Globalization actually started when we started shooting abroad.<br />
Because of terrorism in Kashmir, I started going to Switzerland, where<br />
the locations were beautiful. Now almost every country is trying to woo<br />
India to come and shoot on their locations. They earn foreign exchange,<br />
even if 10 percent of the people who see the films visit their countries.<br />
There are lots of deals going on, subsidies offered, as a result it is<br />
cheaper to shoot in Switzerland than in India. Rakesh Roshan and<br />
Singapore had big deals when he shot Krissh there. There is comfort of<br />
shooting, fantastic locations, but I don’t think just because you shoot<br />
abroad, the film will be successful.<br />
We did a co-production with Disney on the animation film Roadside<br />
Romeo. They were surprised by our animators and the film won awards<br />
internationally. We are doing good work, but when you see Avatar, you<br />
know we have a long way to go.<br />
Pyaar Impossible<br />
Ta Ra Rum Pum<br />
Tashan<br />
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic<br />
Everyday the world is becoming smaller—co-productions can be done,<br />
technically and financially. The difference in exchange rates goes a long<br />
way. Fifty crores are a few million dollars, why won’t they gamble? But<br />
nobody can make a crossover film; if it is good, it will cross over. In 10<br />
years, a lot of deals have been done at FICCI Frames, ultimately global<br />
interaction will benefit us.<br />
On Bollywood and the world:<br />
Bollywood has become a big name, the whole world wants it in one way<br />
or the other. Indian entertainment, cinema, theatre, costumes,<br />
food—everything. It’s a big craze and it has never happened before. We<br />
were in Paris at the Ritz Hotel, and Tom Cruise was also there. When he<br />
went out of the hotel, there were a few fans, but when Shah Rukh Khan<br />
came out, it became difficult to control the crowds. The security people<br />
requested us to travel in a bus and not separate cars, because they could<br />
not handle it. It’s happening at every level. Our stars are very big… in<br />
Egypt, Amitabh Bachchan is god! India is going global.<br />
On the downside of going global:<br />
We are losing a lot of things in our culture. In our music, the soul is<br />
gone… the Indian melody is gone. They say that the market is dictated<br />
by the youth and get away with anything. China and Japan have not lost<br />
2 3<br />
Badmaash Company<br />
Dil Bole Hadippa!<br />
Chak De! India<br />
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi<br />
“All these years not more than seven or eight<br />
percent films were successful; and I am talking<br />
success-failure in terms of money only.<br />
Those days of jubilees are gone.”<br />
Veer-Zaara<br />
their identity.<br />
The advantage of going global is that people are rejecting formula films.<br />
They are patronizing new kinds of cinema. The disadvantage is loss of<br />
identity. You hardly see Indian costumes in out films anymore, or hear<br />
Indian melody. You hardly get to hear powerful dialogues in our films. In<br />
the old days there used to be special dialogue writers with a knowledge<br />
of the language, who wrote those dialogues that people still remember.<br />
Maybe now people want simple, colloquial dialogue, but you don’t hear<br />
audiences clapping any more, or crying in emotional scenes. Dialogue ka<br />
zamana chala gaya.<br />
On directing again:<br />
New York<br />
I am trying to make my kind of film… romantic, human, emotional, so it’s<br />
taking time to finalize. I can’t make just any film, and I can’t make a fool<br />
of myself… but I have promised myself, that this year I will direct a film.
4<br />
Throw<br />
out the<br />
Rulebook<br />
Deepa Deosthalee talks to hotshot DOP C.K. Muraleedharan<br />
about his ad work.<br />
C.K.Muraleedharan believes that a cinematographer should do something new with each film and<br />
never settle into a style. And that everything must come from the script. Which is why he’s very<br />
selective of the films he does, both in cinema and in advertising. His impressive body of work<br />
includes films like Lage Raho Munnabhai, Johnny Gaddaar and 3 Idiots and commercials for a wide<br />
range of products from Cadbury’s and Surf Excel to Tata Sky and Airtel. Muraleedharan believes<br />
advertising is going through an interesting phase where innovation is the keyword and the rulebook<br />
has gone out of the window.<br />
He’s the man who shot the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time, 3 Idiots. But for Muraleedharan,<br />
it’s never been about the money. Unlike a lot of other cinematographers who dream of making it big<br />
in Bollywood, he shied away from feature films for a long time because he didn’t connect with the<br />
cinema of the ’70s and ’80s and focussed on documentaries and television mini-series instead. His<br />
career in advertising too has run a similar course. “I’ve been in and out of advertising. I assisted<br />
Barun Mukherjee 30 years ago when I first came to Mumbai. There was a time when I practically<br />
lived at Famous Studios and did plenty of leftover stuff on different ad films. That was before the<br />
digital era, when every effect had to be created manually,” he recalls.<br />
“The audience is now used to seeing all kinds of images on<br />
television and the internet. So they won’t believe anything<br />
you show them unless you’re sure about<br />
where you want to lead them.”<br />
Facia<br />
Eno<br />
A physics graduate from Kerala, Muraleedharan believes his academic<br />
background actually helped him a lot in his advertising work. He worked<br />
with directors like Prahlad Kakkar, Ram Madhvani and Sumantra Ghoshal in<br />
the 1990s. But somewhere along the way, he lost interest and consciously<br />
moved away from shooting ad films. “Those days the look of ad films was<br />
standardised – soft, polished and mushy. Beyond a point I got bored with<br />
this set format and moved on to feature films instead. It wasn’t exciting to<br />
spend 12 hours lighting up a teacup or a steel jar.”<br />
But in recent years, he’s back on the circuit after what he describes as a<br />
“change in the patterns and mood of ad films… From happy, peppy, smiley<br />
images, we are now dealing with material that’s gritty, dark and realistic.<br />
Over the past few years, both internationally and locally, the language of<br />
expression in ad films has changed. Last year I did a commercial for Surf<br />
Excel where a little boy is rolling in the mud to cheer up his teacher whose<br />
pet dog has just died. I’m not into flowery images and prefer playing with<br />
contrasts and silhouettes.”<br />
It was Muraleedharan who shot the first Airtel commercial with Madhavan<br />
and Vidya Balan that was directed by Vinil Mathew, one of his favourite<br />
directors. “We didn’t know how well that film would work when we shot it. But<br />
when we saw the result, I was confident it would strike a chord and it did.”<br />
Kurkure<br />
Airtel<br />
Fa<br />
5
6<br />
Surf Excel<br />
While Muraleedharan has shot dozens of commercials over the past few<br />
years with a variety of ad filmmakers, his commitment to feature films<br />
doesn’t leave him with too much time for advertising. “Generally I do ad<br />
films in between feature films because I spend a lot of time on pre-<br />
production for feature films and it’s difficult to shuffle between the two.<br />
And I don’t do too many ads. Feature films are more strenuous and the<br />
responsibility is much more.”<br />
But ad films offer him a great deal of variety in terms of creative<br />
challenge. “Recently I shot a commercial for Eno outside shady<br />
restaurants in Byculla with minimal lighting. It has a very different<br />
ambience. Today, every script can be innovative so things don’t get<br />
repetitive. Also, the audience is now used to seeing all kinds of images<br />
on television and the internet. So they won’t believe anything you show<br />
them unless you’re sure about where you want to lead them. And you<br />
can’t copy or repeat things because you’ll get caught out very easily.”<br />
Bajaj<br />
He has also worked with international directors shooting commercials in<br />
India and often their perception of India as exotica has a role to play in<br />
the kind of films they make. “I shot an ad for HSBC which required the<br />
ambience of a dance shoot with a fort façade as the backdrop. They<br />
wanted 200 dancers and elephants and a grand feel to the images. It<br />
was fun doing that too.”<br />
But he continues to be selective about his scripts and directors. “I work<br />
with directors like Prakash Verma, Vinil Mathew, Rajesh Krishnan, who<br />
wait for good scripts and shoot on their own terms. I’ve also shot ads<br />
with Raju (Rajkumar) Hirani and we’ve worked on two feature films<br />
together. It’s nice working with the same directors again because the<br />
tuning is set and it becomes that much easier.”<br />
Muraleedharan is now preparing to shoot Agent Vinod for Shriram<br />
Raghavan and once he immerses himself in the film it’ll be goodbye to<br />
advertising for some time, yet again. “My ad film directors are used to<br />
my ways now. They know that I’m only available if there’s no feature film<br />
underway. I can’t do both things simultaneously.”<br />
Cadbury's<br />
Keeping up<br />
with the<br />
TIMES<br />
In this interaction with R.G. Vijayasarathy, DOP R. Giri talks about his career<br />
and the changing trends in the cinematography today.<br />
He is always cool and composed. Being a veteran director of cine-<br />
matography in the Kannada film industry, R.Giri can command a lot<br />
of attention, but he is always a low profile man, just concentrating<br />
on his work. But his work speaks for him. Recently he made news by<br />
working on a film, Sugreeva, which was shot in just 18 hours creating<br />
a record of sorts in the Kannada film industry.<br />
He has worked for several big projects including the hugely success-<br />
ful films like Budhdhivantha, Anna Thangi, Tavarige Baa Thangi,<br />
Maharaja, Veerappa Nayaka and many others. His other films<br />
include Raavana, Devaru Kotta Thangi, Bhagyadha Balegaara, Mohini,<br />
Shubham, Thipparalli Tharlegalu and Bindaas Hudugi. Giri has really<br />
made an impact with his craft and innovative shot takings. He<br />
believes that discipline and hard work are the most important fac-<br />
tors for progress in the career of cinematographer.<br />
Sugreeva<br />
D e s p i t e w o r k i n g i n m a n y<br />
Kannada films and with all the<br />
big directors and superstars you<br />
remain aloof from the limelight.<br />
Why do you remain low profile<br />
always?<br />
I normally shun all film parties<br />
and also the pre-release press<br />
meets of films. What is the use<br />
in talking about our own work<br />
before the release of any film? I<br />
think the cinematographer’s job<br />
has to be analyzed by the people<br />
and the film fraternity after the<br />
release of the film. Our work<br />
should speak for us and I believe<br />
that any amount of trumpeting<br />
your achievements in press<br />
meets will not bring in laurels,<br />
though it may boost your ego a<br />
bit. The appreciation your work<br />
receives in media and also by<br />
fans after watching the film is<br />
more important than media<br />
coverage. I respect the reviews<br />
more than what my colleagues<br />
working with me in films would<br />
tell me about my work. I will<br />
normally disassociate myself<br />
f r o m a n y p r e - p u b l i c i t y<br />
campaigns mainly because my<br />
job is to just translate the vision<br />
of a director on screen and the<br />
film is just a reflection of a<br />
director’s concept.<br />
But every artiste and technician<br />
thinks he is a commodity in<br />
today’s competitive world and<br />
wants to promote himself?<br />
Don’t you feel isolated in this<br />
marketing blitz?<br />
I don’t think the people who are<br />
so conscious about films will<br />
accept whatever is said in press<br />
meets. Louis Armstrong, one of<br />
the greatest exponents of Jazz,<br />
is believed to have said, “If you<br />
cannot blow your own trumpet,<br />
who else will?” But I think<br />
Armstrong, being a genius, must<br />
have said it in jest. Even his<br />
achievements were appreciated<br />
by music lovers and were not<br />
analyzed in the background of<br />
the statements made by him. I<br />
don’t think I have been isolated<br />
in this industry as every film<br />
personality knows that I am<br />
greatly skilled and I have my<br />
work in films to prove that I can<br />
be trusted.<br />
Raavana<br />
7
8<br />
Your recent film Sugreeva was shot in just<br />
18 hours and is discussed for its planning,<br />
execution and detailed homework. How was<br />
this hard task accomplished?<br />
I think Sugreeva will be a memorable film for<br />
all the people who were associated with it<br />
including the spot boys who had worked for it.<br />
It was a victory for team work and the<br />
artistes, technicians and workers in the<br />
Kannada film industry showed that they can<br />
plan and execute well to make a reasonably<br />
good film, which can be interesting for the<br />
audience for more than two hours. Sugreeva<br />
had 10 film directors and 10 cinemato-<br />
graphers working in tandem. I had worked<br />
with film director Pramod Chakravarthy with<br />
whom I share a good rapport. I had earlier<br />
worked under his direction in a comedy film<br />
called Golmaal which is yet to be released. I<br />
had also worked as cinematographer in many<br />
films produced by his brother Sheshu<br />
Chakravarthy. We had nearly 18 sequences to<br />
be shot in the main hall of Raja Rajeshwari<br />
Hospital where the entire film was shot. We<br />
started shooting for the film at six a.m. on<br />
October 11, 2009 and finished our shooting<br />
just 10 minutes before 12.00 p.m. on the same<br />
day. Clearly it was a big achievement!<br />
Budhdhivantha<br />
Budhdhivantha<br />
Can you briefly tell us about your background<br />
and how you were drafted into films?<br />
Frankly I am not that well educated and was<br />
not trained in any film institute. I just worked<br />
under cameraman-director Dinesh Babu in<br />
my younger days. I learnt all the basics<br />
working under him and his then assistant<br />
P.K.H. Doss, who is himself an accomplished<br />
cinematographer now. Working with Babu sir<br />
was more than attending a training workshop.<br />
He would use available equipments and also<br />
shoot in existing light to get the best frames.<br />
And he would also work with greater speed.<br />
Both Babu and Doss were perfect in choosing<br />
the lighting pattern for a particular sequence. I<br />
think cinematographers can make a great<br />
impact by using very ordinary equipment if<br />
they can perfectly do the lighting work. Then I<br />
got the first break to work as an independent<br />
cinematographer in the film Nighatha which<br />
was directed by my brother-in-law S.Narayan<br />
who had also become a film producer with<br />
that film. The film was shot in hilly areas and<br />
also in some inaccessible terrain. We used to<br />
go to the interiors with all the equipment and<br />
shoot the film. It was a good experience. Later<br />
on I worked with S.Narayan in many films,<br />
after which I was drafted to work by other film<br />
directors. Now, I am working again with my<br />
brother-in-law for the big budget film Veera<br />
Parampare which will have two big artistes like<br />
Sudeep and Ambareesh.<br />
Devaru Kotta Thangi<br />
“I think <strong>Kodak</strong> is the most<br />
trusted brand for any film<br />
cinematographer today.”<br />
What were some of the big challenges you had<br />
faced during your career?<br />
A film like Shubham was really a challenge. In<br />
Lava Kusha which had two superstars like<br />
Shivaraj Kumar and Upendra working for it, I<br />
had to shoot some of the action sequences in<br />
a limited time frame. The stunt choreographer<br />
had done his homework and was ready with<br />
his shots, but I had to make arrangements for<br />
the lighting at a brisk speed. I was able to get<br />
things right and the action sequences in the<br />
film were much appreciated. Budhdhivantha<br />
was another film which was memorable<br />
because we had to shoot the songs in China<br />
and also in Himalayas in extremely difficult<br />
situations. Frankly there are many of them,<br />
but I can not recount those things<br />
immediately.<br />
As a cinematographer you must have seen<br />
many changes in filmmaking trends… what is<br />
your take on these recent changes in the<br />
industry?<br />
In a way I think every film is a challenge in<br />
these days when explosion of talent is seen in<br />
today’s films. Also new innovations and new<br />
type of cameras and equipments are hitting<br />
the market. And well-educated trained talents<br />
are being introduced in the camera<br />
department. Cinematographers of today need<br />
to learn more about all the new inventions,<br />
equipments and even the new trends that are<br />
seen in films today. We are seeing today how<br />
digital cameras are entering the fray and we<br />
can find even established film directors like<br />
Kamal Haasan using Red cameras. There are<br />
many Kannada filmmakers who are using the<br />
other forms of digital cameras. I think the new<br />
technology is spreading its wings very fast<br />
and cinematographers should know the<br />
contemporary trends in the industry.<br />
You are normally using the <strong>Kodak</strong> negatives..<br />
why this particular brand?<br />
I think <strong>Kodak</strong> is the most trusted brand for<br />
any film cinematographer today.<br />
Painting Pradip Chakraborty tells Malabi Sen<br />
Painting with<br />
Musolmanir Galpo<br />
How did the journey into movies take off?<br />
Painting<br />
Towards the end of 1975 I worked under V. Balasaheb as an assistant, and then under Dilipranjan<br />
Mukherjee. I assisted Manmohan Singh also. In 1986 my father died and I shifted to Kolkata. My<br />
work as independent cinematographer started in 1988, with Dr. Swapan Saha working in his film,<br />
Chandrabati Katha. I worked with Ratan Adhikary in his films Shakti, Jibantrishna, Parichay, Anurag,<br />
Apan Halo Par; Premee directed by Bikash Banerjee. I also worked with Salilmoy Ghosh in his film<br />
Ekti Meye Tamasi. Now I am shooting Pranab Choudhury’s film Ekti Musolmanir Galpo, based on<br />
Rabindranath Tagore’s story.<br />
Did you come across the demarcation between art or parallel cinema?<br />
There can only be a good, well-made film and a badly made film. No other line of demarcation<br />
exists, if I may say so. In this context, I can recall, we were shooting a film Aanchal starring Amol<br />
Palekar in Mumbai, he was also saying he does not believe in art film per se, a film can be either<br />
good or bad. Technically all films are the same where the actual job of filmmaking is concerned. In<br />
art cinema you get less intercutting, the emphasis is on storytelling, it is much less jerky to the<br />
eyes. For commercial movies, the ‘commerce’ part is much more important, getting the money back<br />
that is invested in making the film remains all important to the producer rather than thinking in<br />
terms of quality. The money counting starts even before shooting commences. I still remember<br />
with affection a film of mine that was left incomplete, called Jibanjapan directed by Sauren Basu.<br />
Only three or five days of shooting was left when work got stalled due to unavoidable<br />
circumstances. In that film my work was compared to one of my gurus, Saumendu Roy, I felt very<br />
elated then, but the film has been left incomplete all these years.<br />
Light<br />
Sauren had stressed at every point the mood of the scene, the visual treatment when a guy goes<br />
out for work in the morning and the afternoon when the womenfolk staying at home are taking a bit<br />
of nap has an altogether different treatment visually, lighting-wise or whichever way you look at it.<br />
Sauren stressed not only mood, but also the colour temperature to be used of the raw stock. In the<br />
afternoon just before sunset we used 2000K, the orange tone of light we get, then Sauren tried to<br />
visualize it. A thousand pities this film could not be completed. It is my bad luck as a<br />
cinematographer. For a director a film is like a child unborn, in its process of making.<br />
Musolmanir Galpo<br />
that he does not let problems<br />
affect the quality of his work.<br />
Pradip Chakraborty wanted to become<br />
an artist and get admitted into the<br />
Government Art College in Kolkata.<br />
But the paucity of funds held him back.<br />
So, he decided to do a three-year still<br />
photography course at the Jadavpur Insti-<br />
tute of Printing Technology.<br />
On completing this course he left for<br />
Mumbai, and with the help of famous art<br />
director, Sudhendu Roy, found a place at<br />
Natraj Studios as an observer under great<br />
cinematographer V.K. Murthy and others<br />
like G. Singh, A.G. Prabhakar,<br />
Alok Dasgupta and Bipin Gajjar.<br />
“Photography<br />
is the platform,<br />
cinematography<br />
is the look and eye<br />
of the film.”<br />
Musolmanir Galpo<br />
9
10<br />
Do you get the equipment and stock you<br />
want?<br />
We suffer a lot. Availability of good lenses to a<br />
good quality camera harangues us always.<br />
The lens is the eye of the camera, the lens is<br />
prime. What we get here is for me a third<br />
hand camera, not even second hand!<br />
Supposing we could get Panavision cameras,<br />
it would have been great. Some Arri 4s have<br />
come into the market, but the lenses are still<br />
old. Getting a good lab is also a problem. The<br />
standard of <strong>Kodak</strong> Image Lab out there in<br />
Mumbai is a dream for us, we cannot afford to<br />
do our processing there due to stiff budgetary<br />
constraints. Bengali films suffer due to budget<br />
as the market is only regional and hence<br />
limited. If you have a good director with<br />
excellent technical concepts, the results are<br />
bound to be good. But that is, a bit rare, I<br />
might say. Here mostly the production<br />
manager takes up all the responsibilities, and<br />
force us to work not exactly up to the mark.<br />
Supposing you have a three-storey house, the<br />
light cannot be thrown up to the second<br />
storey even. Equipments are a major problem<br />
for me. Once I asked for a 16 mm camera, but<br />
it gave me soft focus. 16 mm is more difficult<br />
than 35 mm, when blown up to 35 mm the<br />
focus goes out. Photography is the platform,<br />
cinematography is the look and eye of the<br />
film.”<br />
For me 100ASA-EXR or Extended Range is a<br />
favourite, I use 5219 500T — very good<br />
contrast film with excellent latitude, I can use<br />
differing filters in this <strong>Kodak</strong> stock both for<br />
indoors and outdoors. I use mostly Tungsten<br />
films, I am yet to use Daylight stocks, they are<br />
a bit risky for indoors, I must use a blue filter<br />
which would decrease the speed, conversion<br />
gets difficult.<br />
“I insist on using<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> stock for its<br />
rich, golden tone.<br />
It brings out<br />
magnificently the skin<br />
tones of an actor,<br />
I can freely play<br />
with light and shade<br />
with <strong>Kodak</strong> stock ”<br />
Musolmanir Galpo<br />
I insist on using <strong>Kodak</strong> stock for its rich, golden tone. It brings out magnificently the skin tones of an<br />
actor, I can freely play with light and shade with <strong>Kodak</strong> stock. In one case, I was shooting using<br />
cinemascope, which creates problems with lenses as it is. But since I was using <strong>Kodak</strong> stock I could<br />
work very smoothly, that way <strong>Kodak</strong> has no parallel.<br />
About Day for Night I am yet to use it — lot of lights would be needed which is a waste in our<br />
shoestring budget here. Many mathematical problems would have to be worked out, the night sky<br />
we see is deep, one has to look out for the exposure, the sky can have 8, the face of the actor 4,<br />
then sky must be done one stop under.<br />
Normally after 4 p.m. daylight keeps decreasing fast, reflected light decreases with it. I try to finish<br />
within 4 p.m. Some directors draw the shooting after 4 or 5 p.m. even, no sky glare is there. I do not<br />
like working in this kind of time. Artificial lights do not match with daylight and the mismatch can<br />
be detected.<br />
For me, mood lighting is all important, in Ratan Adhikary’s film there was a night-scene, I enquired<br />
about the time, he said about 2 to 2.30 p.m. at night. Then inside the room may be only the night<br />
lamp would remain as source, outside spill light from streetlights in a verandah outside. Many<br />
directors discuss all this in detail with me.<br />
In a film called Khannan there were white-washed walls to be shot. I made the art director Samir<br />
Kundu make four different whites on the walls, on which I did the lighting, each using a different<br />
pattern. Inside the room cross lighting is essential to avert reflected light coming from the white<br />
walls. 5219 500T is my favourite stock.<br />
Is Cube projection an answer to bad projection?<br />
Cube loses all details in long-throw long shots or even panoramic views. Mid or close shot is okay.<br />
Due to monetary problems my answer is analog which I prefer most. I can control the shot<br />
compositions etc. all in the final print. Dilipranjan Mukherjee used to say it is better to be abused by<br />
one inside the sets than be abused by lakhs on screen. He insisted on quality camerawork.<br />
What about low-key shots?<br />
For low-key, the negative thins out, I prefer mid-key.<br />
And the actors' skin tones?<br />
When I was working with make-up artistes like Debi Haldar, I used to tell them to give an orange<br />
touch to fair skins, on blackish skin no make-up at all. I have seen artistes of the stature of Shashi<br />
Kapoor and Jeetendra or Rakesh Roshan or Rajendra Kumar not using much make-up at all.<br />
Where Black and White is concerned, I did only one documentary by Bibek Banerjee called<br />
Kidnapped, it was very tough controlling the grey scales. People, after using Black and White once,<br />
feel they have to learn lots more.<br />
Musolmanir Galpo<br />
“ The<br />
DOP should be<br />
Amal Neerad was preparing for the shoot<br />
of his third feature, Anwar,<br />
when K B Venu met him at Kochi.<br />
like a meek wife ”<br />
Amal Neerad carved his niche as a stylish cinematographer and filmmaker, armed with his excellent academic background as an alumnus of<br />
the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and an unflinching commitment to mainstream cinema. Amal’s diploma film won the national<br />
award for best cinematographer in the short feature section. Later he stayed in Berlin for two years as part of an exchange programme and<br />
made a short film called Fourth World. Before starting his career as a filmmaker Amal had his stint as cinematographer with the Varma Corpora-<br />
tion. Both the Malayalam feature films he directed were commercial hits and had attracted the young audience in the State.<br />
How did your passion for films begin<br />
sprouting?<br />
Right from high school days my dream was to<br />
join for direction course at the FTII. The year I<br />
graduated from Maharaja’s College,<br />
Ernakulam, was a zero admission year at FTII.<br />
So I started doing my post graduation. Again,<br />
the next year also was a zero year in the<br />
Institute. At that time, the Satyajit Ray Film<br />
and Television Institute had started<br />
functioning in Kolkata and I joined its first<br />
batch as a student of cinematography.<br />
W h y d i d y o u j o i n a s a s t u d e n t o f<br />
cinematography?<br />
I had in fact applied for the direction course.<br />
At that time, the film institutes in the country<br />
had insisted that students of cinematography<br />
and editing should possess a degree in<br />
science. History was my subject for<br />
graduation. But a science degree was optional<br />
according to the SRFTI rules. I had a stint as a<br />
still photographer during my college days and<br />
won several accolades in youth festivals for<br />
photography. I had some stills with me when I<br />
appeared for the interview. The board,<br />
comprising of stalwarts of the Satyajit Ray era<br />
were impressed by those stills. They advised<br />
me to opt for cinematography and I agreed.<br />
Perhaps I am the first ever cinematography<br />
student in the country without a science<br />
degree, to study in a national film institute. I<br />
had won a National Award for best<br />
cinematographer for my diploma film, Meena<br />
Jha, in the short feature section. At that time,<br />
there was a German exchange programme<br />
going on. As part of the programme, I went to<br />
Berlin along with a direction student in the<br />
SRFTI. We spent two years there and did a<br />
short film called Fourth World. I wrote the<br />
script and wielded camera for the film. It was<br />
shot in 35 mm format and was shown in<br />
several film festivals across the country.<br />
Why did you go to Bollywood before entering<br />
the Malayalam industry?<br />
My decision was to work in Malayalam films.<br />
In fact I was determined not to migrate to<br />
Bollywood. Most of the students passing out<br />
from national film institutes chose to work in<br />
other languages, especially Hindi. They went<br />
to Mumbai either from Pune or from Kolkata. I<br />
had some regional spirits when I passed out<br />
from the Institute. I spent two years in Kerala,<br />
waiting for chances to work in Malayalam<br />
films. Though I had two short films to my<br />
credit, one a National Award winner and the<br />
other made in Berlin, nobody showed any<br />
interest in me. Many directors appreciated my<br />
showreel but there was no space for me in<br />
their films. They said the producers were not<br />
interested in experimenting with a new<br />
cinematographer. But since I was active in<br />
making advertisement films, I had no financial<br />
problems. By October 2003, I got a call from a<br />
director belonging to the Varma Corporation<br />
who had watched my diploma film. I sent him<br />
the showreel. Since Ram Gopal Varma was<br />
the producer of the film, the next day itself I<br />
got the flight ticket. I went to Mumbai and did<br />
the film James with them. Then came the<br />
Malayalam film Black, directed by Ranjith. I<br />
came to Kerala almost like a cinematographer<br />
belonging to the Bollywood, did the film and<br />
went back. I worked two more films for Varma<br />
Corporation—Darna Zaroori Hain and Shiva.<br />
Then came your directorial debut, Big B…<br />
It was because of Mammootty who was doing<br />
the lead role in Black that I could do my first<br />
film. While I was shooting for Black, I was not<br />
aware of the norms of the Malayalam film<br />
industry and was not very close to the hero.<br />
However, after this film, it was Mammootty<br />
himself who expressed willingness to listen to<br />
a script if I had one to narrate. At that time<br />
Varma Corporation had asked me to direct a<br />
film for them. But I chose to work this project<br />
with Mammootty because I wanted to do my<br />
debut film in that kind of a space. Mammootty<br />
is the only star in Malayalam who provides a<br />
comfortable working space for a debutant<br />
director. The entire crew comprise fresh<br />
hands — the director, scriptwriter,<br />
cinematographer, editor, costume designer,<br />
poster designer… almost everyone in the<br />
technical crew were debutants. We all got this<br />
opportunity because Mammootty was willing<br />
to work with such a team.<br />
11
12<br />
Stills from Anwar<br />
Your films belong to the mainstream category and exhibit offbeat<br />
trends. What were your influences as a student of cinema?<br />
I used to watch all kinds of movies right from my school days. A<br />
mainstream Tamil movie and Antichrist by Lars von Trier can impart<br />
equal amount of excitement to me. I was a member of the Cochin Film<br />
Society, which screened a number of classic movies. And, there was a<br />
video library called Video House in Ernakulam which had almost all<br />
volumes of Bergman, Visconti, Godard and Bunuel. That way I was an<br />
avid film watcher right from the VHS era. Even after joining the Institute,<br />
I used to go out to the theatres every second or third day though there<br />
were regular screening on the campus and the school had a vast video<br />
library.<br />
So you do not differentiate between the genres?<br />
I had always tried to escape from being branded as an intellectual<br />
filmmaker. That is how mainstream cinema and public usually consider<br />
film institute products. That cap will become a handicap when they<br />
enter the mainstream industry. I believe in the power and brilliance of<br />
mainstream cinema. I will tell you an example. Any other director can<br />
plan a different film with the subject of the next film I am making. I<br />
mean, the same theme can be converted into an art house type movie. I<br />
have seen the kind of crowd in Nandan theatre in Kolkota. I will not be<br />
excited if my film is received by that kind of an audience only. I don’t<br />
want to entertain those people. I can very well sit with them and talk<br />
about great films. I want to be part of popular cinema and communicate<br />
to the masses.<br />
What is your new film Anwar all about?<br />
Anwar is different from my previous films. My first two films had their<br />
thrust in cinematic elements. They were cinematic from the very first<br />
shot. Anwar is going to deal with a more realistic and contemporary<br />
issue. At the same time, I have no plan and intention to preach anything<br />
to the masses. I want to prove that many “rights” and many “wrongs”<br />
exist in our world. The concept of right and wrong is never the same for<br />
different people. The main characters in my movie belong to different<br />
realities and have separate concepts of truth. Anwar is all about the<br />
evolution of these characters. And, I want it to be an absolutely<br />
commercial movie.<br />
You are a trained cinematographer. But you employ others to wield<br />
camera for your films. Is it because you believe more in donning the<br />
mantle of director?<br />
That may be my way of taking revenge. (Laughs) After coming from<br />
SRFTI I had spent two years here with the hope of becoming a<br />
cinematographer in Malayalam movies. I have grown up watching<br />
Stills from Anwar<br />
excellent cinematographers like Venu and Santosh Sivan.<br />
Cinematographers from Kerala still have that legacy. In Mumbai,<br />
Malayali cinematographers have a place of their own. It is almost like<br />
bearing an ISI mark. I still remember Bharathan’s Thazhvaram and<br />
Padmarajan’s Innale, both cinematographed by Venu, released almost<br />
simultaneously in my city. According to me that is the ultimate<br />
versatility in cinematography. Those films were different from each<br />
other. I do not believe that the cinematographer should have his<br />
signature in cinema. That is the reason why I like Innale and<br />
Thazhvaram. You will never say that these films were cinematographed<br />
by the same person. The cinematographer must behave like a meek and<br />
obedient wife who can help in the progress of materializing the director’s<br />
vision of the film.<br />
A number of film school educated Malayali technicians, mostly<br />
cinematographers, go to Bollywood and other filmmaking lands after<br />
trying their luck in Malayalam cinema. That had caused deterioration in<br />
the quality of cinematography in Malayalam at a particular period. I will<br />
be very happy if ten new cinematographers come up in Malayalam<br />
because of my films. The historic significance of my first film, Big B, is<br />
that it had an altogether fresh crew. Usually when a director makes his<br />
debut, the technical crew will consist of experienced hands. But it was<br />
the vision of a handful of newcomers that made all the difference in Big<br />
B. Like any other part of the country, there are fresh cinematic talents in<br />
Kerala too. Given hope, care, space and technical assistance these<br />
youngsters too can work as excellently as the technicians we import<br />
from other industries providing luxurious facilities. For me, a first time<br />
cinematographer who is willing to do anything for his maiden venture is<br />
more acceptable than some one who is established in the industry. Even<br />
I don’t want to be a professional cinematographer. It is like doing any<br />
other ordinary job. Satheesh Kurup, the cinematographer of my new<br />
venture, spent an entire month for location hunt. I won’t get a<br />
professional cinematographer to do this job for me.<br />
How do you view the advent of state of the art gadgets and devices in<br />
cinematography?<br />
I believe in the strength of celluloid despite the advent of digital<br />
technology in different formats. My first film was shot in super 16. The<br />
next one was shot in Super 35 mm. But in Anwar, I am using a mix of four<br />
formats. As for the stock, I have used only <strong>Kodak</strong>. I am a hundred per<br />
cent orthodox <strong>Kodak</strong> believer right from the film school days. I propose<br />
to use their Vision 3 for Anwar. Even for the advertisement films I shoot, I<br />
use <strong>Kodak</strong>. It gives the satisfaction of portraying Indian skin tones to<br />
near perfection. I am a cinematographer who insists on printing in <strong>Kodak</strong><br />
positive itself.<br />
Ravi Yadav has certainly<br />
created a record. His direc-<br />
torial debut Maro Charitra is<br />
the first movie in the Telugu<br />
industry to have director who<br />
is also the cinematographer.<br />
“A Finger in<br />
Every Pie”<br />
What is your current movie<br />
Maro Charitra about?<br />
Every movie buff in India must<br />
have heard and seen Ek Duuje Ke<br />
Liye. Maro Charitra of 1978 is the<br />
original Telugu movie, directed<br />
by veteran K. Balachander which<br />
was made later made as Ek<br />
Duuje Ke Liye. It was one of the<br />
biggest hits of Telugu cinema<br />
and is among the best romantic<br />
movies of all times.<br />
As I was passing through Times<br />
Square in New York a few years<br />
ago, I suddenly had a brainwave:<br />
What if we could shoot an<br />
emotional scene or song about<br />
two Indian lovers here? That<br />
thought became a fire and I<br />
decided to debut as a director<br />
with this great love story. That is<br />
why I chose Maro Charitra as the<br />
base and developed a similar<br />
story. Only this time, the lovers<br />
are based in the US and it is a<br />
‘now’ generation movie.<br />
I h a v e a l s o d o n e t h e<br />
cinematography for the movie. It<br />
was an astounding experience<br />
to be the director and drive the<br />
movie ahead and also be the<br />
cinematographer and give my<br />
thoughts a vision. It was all so<br />
surreal.<br />
Normally, any other director<br />
would have asked me why I<br />
chose to shoot from a particular<br />
angle or direction. I would have<br />
to explain, even defend, and<br />
perhaps give up on it, even if I am<br />
convinced it works out great for<br />
the movie. This time, I just went<br />
ahead and tried a lot of shots<br />
that I have always wanted to.<br />
As a cinematographer, can you<br />
tell us a few technical aspects<br />
about Maro Charitra?<br />
I shot the entire movie in super<br />
35 format using subdued,<br />
minimal and almost nil lighting<br />
throughout the movie. I shot the<br />
entire movie only one stock –<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> 200 ASA 5217 stocks. I<br />
used an Arri Master Prime lens<br />
with three perforations. I have<br />
used so less lighting in some<br />
shots that even those in the<br />
industry will be zapped. I have<br />
never used even a single direct<br />
light; but opted for soft, diffused<br />
light – atmospheric, mood<br />
lighting to bring out the<br />
emotions. We shot for 90 days<br />
across four countries.<br />
I personally liked the scene<br />
where we shot a 360 degree<br />
scene around a house in Dubai.<br />
The house did not have space<br />
Even after having worked as a<br />
cinematographer for Hindi,<br />
Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and<br />
M a l a y a l a m , e v e n a n<br />
occasional English movie,<br />
Yadav is still not content. He<br />
wants more.<br />
Ravi Yadav talks to Manju Latha Kalanidhi about his dreams and ambitions.<br />
“I know that<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> reproduces<br />
my vision<br />
impeccably.”<br />
around it for camera navigation,<br />
but it was crucial that we run<br />
the camera around the house. It<br />
was very dark and we could not<br />
place lights because of lack of<br />
space. I used the shadows of the<br />
dark light to bring out the scene.<br />
I also love the opening shot of<br />
the movie where we used a<br />
helicopter about 200 ft above<br />
the ground for a grand shot. The<br />
shot at Niagara Falls also is<br />
among my favourites.<br />
Since we were working on a low<br />
budget and a super small crew,<br />
it was important to keep costs<br />
low while still making the<br />
product rich and on a bigger<br />
canvas. Perhaps, being a<br />
cinematographer really helped<br />
me as I could choose my<br />
l o c a t i o n s w i t h o u t m u c h<br />
difficulty. I chose New York for<br />
its sheer vibrancy which<br />
13
14<br />
translates equally vibrantly on<br />
screen, Las Vegas for its glitz<br />
and Dubai for its profundity. By<br />
showing good wisdom in the<br />
choice of places, we could easily<br />
c u t c o s t s o n l a v i s h a n d<br />
expensive sets.<br />
Is it true that the crew was less<br />
than 20?<br />
“<strong>Kodak</strong>’s versatility gives me the freedom<br />
to shoot the scene at my own pace.”<br />
Yes, we are a crew of 17 and that<br />
is certainly a record. Typically,<br />
most Telugu movies of this<br />
budget have about 100 or so.<br />
Surprisingly, it was not just me<br />
who doubled up as a DOP and a<br />
director, but everybody took on<br />
e x t ra ro l e s . Th e c a m e ra<br />
assistant willing became a<br />
camera operator and so on. The<br />
chief assistant director Arun<br />
Prasad did everything from<br />
running around to impromptu<br />
improvisations. So did the co-<br />
director Nirmal Roy.<br />
How do you keep yourself<br />
updated in your profession?<br />
I visit a lot of trade shows<br />
abroad. I recently went for a<br />
show in Amsterdam. Such<br />
shows display the latest<br />
equipment and techniques and I<br />
get to meet experts in the field. I<br />
also pore over the literature and<br />
research extensively on the Net<br />
about my equipment. I am<br />
theory-first-practice-next guy. I<br />
do my homework before every<br />
shot.<br />
Maro Charitra<br />
What was <strong>Kodak</strong>’s role in your<br />
movie making experiment?<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong>’s versatility gives me the<br />
freedom to shoot the scene at<br />
my own pace. Whether I<br />
underexpose or overexpose, I<br />
know that <strong>Kodak</strong> reproduces my<br />
vision impeccably. I have worked<br />
on <strong>Kodak</strong> on 24 of my 25<br />
movies.<br />
Tell us about your background<br />
and your entry into movies.<br />
I am a Telugu who spent a major<br />
part of my growing up years at<br />
Chennai. My passion for movies<br />
made me discontinue my<br />
Bachelors degree in Science at<br />
t h e p r e s t i g i o u s M a d r a s<br />
Christian College and enroll<br />
myself at the Madras Film<br />
Institute.<br />
I did not seriously assist<br />
anybody after my filmmaking<br />
course. I hung around the sets of<br />
Chembarti and after a few<br />
Maro Charitra<br />
months of being with Rajeev<br />
Menon, I got my first break with<br />
Pudiya Vanam in 1987. I have<br />
done about 25 movies so far in<br />
H i n d i , Tam i l , M a l aya l a m ,<br />
Kannada and even in English. I<br />
enjoyed working for big ticket<br />
cinemas such as Race, 36 China<br />
Town, Socha Na Tha and Aitraaz.<br />
In Telugu, I worked for the award<br />
winning movie Show. I have shot<br />
over 100 ad films including the<br />
Hyundai Verna ad. Now, I wanted<br />
to get a little deeper into<br />
moviemaking and have decided<br />
to direct a movie. Eventually, I<br />
want to write scripts, do the<br />
screenplay, work behind the<br />
camera and direct it. I want my<br />
finger in every pie.<br />
What is your next project?<br />
Maro Charitra<br />
I am working for the Akshay<br />
Kumar starrer titled Thank You<br />
and directed by Anees Bazmee.<br />
Manoj Paramahamsa may be just three<br />
films old but the industry can’t stop raving<br />
about this young DOP’s work. From creat-<br />
ing a world of dark grey tones for the<br />
thriller Eeram, to shifting to a complete<br />
contrast of white for Vinnai Thandi<br />
Varuvaya, he has succeeded in establish-<br />
ing himself as a force to reckon with.<br />
“My entry into the film industry was<br />
scheduled; my father Babu is a director and<br />
decided that, but I got to choose which area I<br />
would enter. I accompanied him on shootings<br />
ever since I was in the seventh standard and<br />
at that time, cameras were a big mystery. Dad<br />
worked with big cinematographers who also<br />
happened to be his classmates, they were<br />
very close to me. B. Kannan had done a lot for<br />
Dad and as I watched with interest, they<br />
decided I would be a cameraman.<br />
“I was never interested in writing and<br />
preferred the technical side. I joined the Film<br />
Institute at Chennai and everything I thought<br />
about cinema changed. I wanted to go to<br />
Mumbai, but did not want me to struggle the<br />
way he did when he entered the industry. It<br />
was then I got an opportunity to work with<br />
DOP Saravanan with whom I worked from<br />
2001 to 2007 on nearly 15 films and almost<br />
all were hard core commercial films.<br />
“One day I received a call from Manikantan,<br />
my friend and director Gautham Menon’s<br />
associate. He had recommended me for a film<br />
and I was asked to shoot a scene for<br />
Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam. A fairly simple<br />
shot with wet roads on which four youngsters<br />
SHAD E<br />
“The shutter was kept fully<br />
were walking. The first take was as usual but<br />
in the second take I tilted the camera down<br />
and captured the action of their feet stepping<br />
over wet stones. When I said “Cut,” Gautham<br />
was very excited because I had canned<br />
something he never asked me to do, yet suited<br />
the concept and he appreciated me a lot.”<br />
Director Arivazhagan of Eeram along with<br />
Manikantan had been his room mate. They<br />
had spent a lot of time together and discussed<br />
films and they knew about Manoj’s talent.<br />
Arivazhagan was working with director<br />
Shankar. He wanted to do a scratch film for<br />
Eeram and Manoj shot a trailer on a handicam<br />
and showed it to Shankar who was impressed<br />
with it.<br />
open and we used eye<br />
adjustment and simply trusted<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong>. <strong>Kodak</strong> gave us<br />
the eerie effect<br />
and consistency.”<br />
S<br />
of Dreams<br />
Divya K goes into<br />
creative details<br />
with DOP<br />
Manoj Paramahamsa<br />
“We prepared everything for the film six<br />
months ahead of shooting including the<br />
complete script and full storyboard,” he<br />
recalls. “We spent a long time finding a grey<br />
apartment for the film as it plays a key role.<br />
We were given permission for just 12 hours to<br />
shoot the entire night sequence and we used<br />
just one light. I used 5219 for the night and<br />
climax and 5217 for the rest of the film.<br />
“When I started Eeram, there were two things<br />
I wanted to be very sure about, one was stock<br />
because of the black and where it was going<br />
to be processed. I wanted Rama Naidu Lab, a<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> certified lab who could reproduce the<br />
black I wanted. They recommended 5217 and<br />
they gave me tips on handling that. The<br />
shutter was kept fully open and we used eye<br />
adjustment and simply trusted <strong>Kodak</strong>.<br />
Whether the look was bright or deep, we<br />
knew that <strong>Kodak</strong>’s latitude would support us,<br />
even up to five stops underexposure, we knew<br />
the details would be there. <strong>Kodak</strong> gave us the<br />
eerie effect and consistency.<br />
Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya<br />
15
16<br />
“In Eeram, we have used HDRI imaging,<br />
something that has not been done so far in<br />
Indian graphics. When I heard the script, I<br />
decided the CG effects needs and wanted the<br />
water movement to be in our control. Normally,<br />
the reason CG portions do not look authentic is<br />
that they cannot match the contrast ratio on the<br />
shooting floor. We gave Indian Artists, our CG<br />
team, a very good reference. A highly reflective<br />
silver ball was placed wherever the CG was to<br />
appear and was underexposed 10 stops and<br />
also overexposed 10 stops. This gave us the<br />
maximum highlight and maximum shadow and<br />
we gave this reference to our CG artists. The<br />
water simulation took six to seven months.<br />
“We needed motion control but the budget<br />
would not permit us to hire rigs for this so we<br />
made our own solution. After taking a shot,<br />
we would record on Nagra. Then we would<br />
make markers and then take the next shot in<br />
sync. That way, whenever high end equipment<br />
was needed and we could not afford it, we<br />
made our own creative solutions.<br />
“The DI processed songs in<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> Labs which gave me<br />
consistency and even grain<br />
“The director did not want to see sunlight<br />
anywhere in the film so we canned master<br />
shots before sunrise. We also used a heavy<br />
frost diffuser which we had specially<br />
imported. And when we happened to shoot in<br />
sunlight, it gave us an overcast feel and evenly<br />
diffused shadows which would have been lost<br />
in a normal diffuser.<br />
structure.”<br />
“Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya was a complete<br />
contrast to Eeram. I was surprised that<br />
Gautham Menon wanted whites and this was<br />
challenging. He said it’s a conversational love<br />
story but not colourful as its an authentic<br />
story and I don’t want it cinematic. He gave<br />
me a lot freedom and lot of time for lighting.<br />
“We mostly shot in a white house upstairs and<br />
downstairs where the hero and heroine lived<br />
respectively. We also shot a 450-year-old<br />
church in Alleppey. The major songs were shot<br />
in Malta where the houses are all off white.<br />
The costumes were also white in the film.<br />
“If you diffuse white with white it gets pale so<br />
we used sunlight for 80 per cent of the film<br />
and you can feel it. When we lost ambient<br />
light we used a heavy light to simulate<br />
sunlight. The sun was kept in the camera and<br />
shot from the opposite angle which brought in<br />
plenty of overexposure, we have captured the<br />
brightest spot to the shadows in one shot. We<br />
also used a lot of cut lights and shadows<br />
within frame contrast.<br />
“I used a lot of 5205 and then <strong>Kodak</strong> launched<br />
5207, an enhancement and this really helped<br />
achieve what I wanted to. We desaturated the<br />
colours in DI, this enhanced the whites and<br />
removed 50 per cent of the colours. Since the<br />
locations are glossy many do not realize this. I<br />
had no tones in the film and instead kept it<br />
had neutral as I wanted it to feel real with a<br />
breezy look. The DI processed songs in <strong>Kodak</strong><br />
Labs which gave me consistency and even<br />
grain structure.<br />
“On of the most challenging shots was when<br />
the hero goes to see the heroine in the middle<br />
of the night at a place set against the<br />
backwaters. There was no light source.. and<br />
we had to place the helium light in the water<br />
and this was our main source light, the rest<br />
were tiny serial lights. The wind was heavy,<br />
yet we had to ensure that it would not move.<br />
It cost around Rs 2.5- 3 lakhs just for this light<br />
per day and this is probably the first time it<br />
has been used in Tamil cinema.<br />
“The hero Simbu looks different because his<br />
hairstyle and less makeup make him look<br />
fresh. Normally, the hero is given enhanced<br />
lighting, but here we did not do special for<br />
him. There is one shot where the hero and<br />
heroine are lighted just with the headlamp of<br />
a car complete with red tint. It was five stops<br />
underexposed and it’s a <strong>Kodak</strong> shot! The film<br />
was shot in Telugu too and titled Ne Mayu<br />
Chesthaney. It was similar to the Tamil version<br />
except for certain locations. We improved the<br />
visual quality.<br />
“I am currently working in an untitled film<br />
with Gautham Menon starring Sameera<br />
Reddy. I want to do good cinema. I would like<br />
to move to Bollywood and then world<br />
cinema.”<br />
Stills from Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya<br />
Anil Nair is enjoying his second innings in films. Starting his career in movies as an assis-<br />
tant with Ravi K. Chandran, Nair became an independent cinematographer and worked for<br />
couple of films. Then he turned to the television medium and became a prominent DOP in<br />
teleserials. After spending a decade as a television cameraman, he came back to films with<br />
two successful hits, Ivar Vivahitharayal and Happy Husbands. Now he has completed his<br />
latest work with Joshi, one of the most prominent directors in Malayalam industry.<br />
How did you start your career as a<br />
cinematographer?<br />
I was a still photographer covering marriage<br />
f u n c t i o n s b e f o r e v e n t u r i n g a s a<br />
cinematographer. While doing my graduation<br />
in mathematics I used to cover functions in<br />
the college. After completing my graduation, I<br />
became a full-time still photographer. Then I<br />
became an assistant of Rameshkumar,<br />
cameraman in the Chitranjali Studio at<br />
Thiruvananthapuram. He was involved mainly<br />
in shooting documentary films. After that,<br />
when I had a desire to work in movies director<br />
Priyadarshan recommended me to Ravi K.<br />
Chandran and I became his assistant. Kabhi<br />
Na Kabhi was my first film with him.<br />
Anil Nair shares<br />
the ups and downs<br />
in his career<br />
with K.B. Venu.<br />
Second<br />
Time<br />
at the box-office.<br />
Lucky<br />
Priyadarshan’s Virasat and Shaji Kailas’ The<br />
King were the important films on which I<br />
worked with him. I spent two years with<br />
Chandran. Then Sree Shanker, when he<br />
became an independent cinematographer,<br />
invited me to join him as an associate. I<br />
worked on about 15 films with him. In 1999,<br />
after working for four years as an associate, I<br />
became an independent cinematographer<br />
with the film My Dear Karadi, directed by<br />
Sandhya Mohan. But that film was not a<br />
success at the box-office. I did two more films<br />
and they too met with the same fate. Then<br />
Baiju Devaraj, a serial director, invited me to<br />
work with him. The serial, Sthreejanmam, was<br />
a mega hit and I got the Film Critics’ Award<br />
for the work. I was in television serials for the<br />
next seven years. All were mega serials on<br />
leading television channels. I became friends<br />
with Saji Surendran when he directed the<br />
serial Alippazham. Then we worked together<br />
for six more serials. In the meanwhile, director<br />
Jose Thomas invited me for the film Youth<br />
Festival. I did the film and it too was a failure<br />
Why didn’t you try your luck in films again<br />
immediately after that?<br />
I preferred to stay with the television industry<br />
then. Once again I went back to the world of<br />
serials. While shooting the serial Ammakkayi,<br />
our team consisting of Saji Surendran and<br />
Krishna Poojappura resolved to take up a film<br />
project. That was how the film Ivar<br />
Vivahitharayal directed by Saji Surendran<br />
happened. Krishna Poojappura was the<br />
scriptwriter. The film was a success and my<br />
work as a cinematographer caught the<br />
attention of the public and the industry. Then I<br />
got the opportunity to be part of Kerala Café,<br />
a collection of ten short films by different<br />
directors under the leadership of Ranjith. I<br />
worked with Padmakumar who directed the<br />
first segment in the film. Then came Happy<br />
Husbands, directed by Saji and written by<br />
Krishna. While engaged in the grading of this<br />
film, I got a call from director Joshi. That is<br />
how I happened to do his latest movie,<br />
Christian Brothers, starring Mohan Lal.<br />
Your training as a cinematographer was on<br />
the job. You were not trained in any film<br />
17
18<br />
notable movies because of this. I didn’t go<br />
asking for breaks. In fact I was identified<br />
better in television serials. I got six awards in a<br />
row as the best teleserial cinematographer.<br />
Eventually I began to approach my work in a<br />
serious way. I was not that serious with my<br />
earlier film projects. I did things according to<br />
my conviction. I began to experiment with<br />
lighting patterns and other ingredients in<br />
teleserial shooting. That was how I managed<br />
to become prominent as a television serial<br />
DOP. My experience in television serials for<br />
almost a decade imparted confidence in me,<br />
when I started my second innings in films with<br />
Ivar Vivahitharayal.<br />
You started your apprenticeship under Ravi K,<br />
Chandran and still you couldn’t excel in your<br />
earlier works?<br />
I believe that a cinematographer alone cannot<br />
produce excellent results. He must get<br />
support from various corners. The director’s<br />
involvement is the most important factor. The<br />
director must be a person with a fair<br />
knowledge about the different aspects of<br />
c i n e m a t o g r a p h y . O n l y t h e n t h e<br />
cinematographer can work effectively. It is<br />
also important to have fine equipment and<br />
comfortable working atmosphere. All the<br />
films in the first phase of my career were<br />
completed in shoestring budgets. I got only<br />
2C camera and never used a fine stock like<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong>. I couldn’t work properly and the<br />
subjects were not treated well. As a result,<br />
those films flopped in all aspects and my work<br />
went unnoticed.<br />
When did you actually start using <strong>Kodak</strong>?<br />
I started using <strong>Kodak</strong> in my second innings in<br />
films. When we planned to do Ivar<br />
Vivahitharayal, the very first thing I had<br />
insisted on was using <strong>Kodak</strong>. The producer,<br />
who was a relative of the screenplay writer,<br />
never interfered in our work. He was<br />
concerned only about the quality of the<br />
movie. The process of making that film had<br />
the spirit of teamwork.<br />
What is the advantage you find in working<br />
with <strong>Kodak</strong>?<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> is a reliable stock. Watching my latest<br />
work, Happy Husbands, director Viji Thampi<br />
telephoned Saji Surendran and asked whether<br />
we had done DI on the whole film.<br />
That is definitely an appreciation and<br />
acknowledgment for my work. I was afraid of<br />
the bad results in projection because there are<br />
UFO and Cube projections too. But the film<br />
covered all the shortcomings in the exhibition<br />
system and gave good results in theaters. I<br />
think the stock had a major role to play in this<br />
achieving this excellent result.<br />
A majority of the cinematographers here<br />
complain about the inferior quality of theatres<br />
and projection system. How do you evaluate<br />
this situation?<br />
Our theatres are not maintained properly. To<br />
ensure high quality of the print, the<br />
cinematographer, director and producer<br />
should work well in advance. We got the first<br />
print of Happy Husbands one week before the<br />
release of the movie. I got enough time to<br />
correct the print. For UFO, I made correction<br />
in the negative itself, shot by shot. Many<br />
theaters here do not follow the rules and<br />
maintain the conditions required for UFO<br />
projection. As a result, the spectators get<br />
imperfect images on the screen. This system<br />
must be standardized as early as possible.<br />
The organizations working in the field must<br />
take initiatives in executing this.<br />
In short, you believe in taking care of your<br />
work until the print is out.<br />
Of course, yes. The cinematographer, director<br />
and the producer should watch the first print<br />
of the film in a theater and ensure its quality.<br />
There are people who complain of poor<br />
projection in theaters even after ensuring<br />
excellent result in the laboratory. That is really<br />
a sad situation. This can be avoided only if the<br />
makers of the film take some precaution.<br />
To what extent can the quality of the print and<br />
projection be improved?<br />
We will not be able to do anything once the<br />
p r i n t s r e a c h t h e t h e a t e r s . T h e<br />
cinematographer can sit along when the print<br />
is transferred into the digital format. I saw the<br />
print of Happy Husbands before release and<br />
was satisfied about its quality. Problems arise<br />
when some theaters hesitate to provide the<br />
required facilities for exhibition. This can be<br />
corrected only by the interference of<br />
concerned associations.<br />
How was the experience of working with a<br />
veteran like Joshi?<br />
Joshi’s school is entirely different from others.<br />
I could learn a lot from him. I was fortunate to<br />
have worked with him at this stage of my<br />
career. Joshi had seen the latest film I had<br />
worked. He said his only concern was whether<br />
I would be able to zoom the camera in the<br />
proper manner. After three days of shooting,<br />
he was convinced of my capability in that<br />
area. He was the person who taught me how<br />
to work professionally at a fast pace.<br />
What are your future plans? Since you have<br />
been doing all sorts of popular films, do you<br />
have any plan to change your style?<br />
I have no such ambitions as of now. I don’t<br />
want to be a very busy cameraman. I want to<br />
work with different subjects that allow me to<br />
experiment with camera and lighting.<br />
Hard Work PAYS<br />
Raja Phadtare tells Johnson Thomas<br />
that he considers the industry as his true home.<br />
So how did you make your first entry into film?<br />
When I was studying for my graduation I was already fascinated by the<br />
camera and the images it could create. I found myself more engrossed in<br />
the imagery on the screen than in the story or performances. I was<br />
curious to know what went into the making of those images and this led<br />
me to inquiring about cinematography. My family was totally against my<br />
entering this line so I had to run away and come to Mumbai to pursue<br />
my dreams. I joined Kirti College to complete my education and soon<br />
after I was lucky enough to get a break in 1998 with the great Ashok<br />
Mehta on his film Moksh as the twelfth assistant to the DOP. It wasn’t<br />
paid position but I was eager to learn, and learn from him I did!<br />
From his initial days as a struggler in Mumbai to his present status as a recognized DOP in the regional<br />
language (Marathi) circuit, Raja Phadtare has come long way. Cinema was always his passion. He<br />
used to steal away from home to watch films in the single theater close to His village. Since a new film<br />
was exhibited every week, he used to be there every week and some days when he was not busy with<br />
studies, he used to watch the same film over and over again. He believe this gave him great perspective.<br />
Wasn’t it tough for you in those days?<br />
Yes it was tough but I was willing to work hard and struggle through to<br />
my big break. While in college I undertook course in still photography<br />
which gave me solid base. Thereafter I was working in theatre, doing the<br />
light designing for plays, before I met Ashok Mehta, who was kind<br />
enough to take me on as an assistant on his project. Initially I was just<br />
doing the menial tasks but I paid attention to what was happening on the<br />
camera side and that helped improve my knowledge and gave me the<br />
confidence to approach others for work. The first year I was just an<br />
interested observer on the sets. It’s only after the first year that Ashokji<br />
let me handle the camera. I spent over two years under Mehtaji’s<br />
tutelage and I must say that those two years taught me most of the skill I<br />
put to use today. Ashok Mehta is the master of lighting and through keen<br />
observation and hard work I have been able to use what knowledge I<br />
obtained from him in the work I have done so far.<br />
19
What did you do next? Were you<br />
able to get other positions as<br />
DOP assistant?<br />
Those days it was quite tough<br />
for me. I had no money and my<br />
parents were not supporting me<br />
with any finance and so I had to<br />
find my own solutions. For the<br />
next three years I worked in<br />
television. There was plenty of<br />
work there and serials were a<br />
big fad. But I could not take it for<br />
longer than three years as my<br />
goals were different. I wanted to<br />
establish my career in films and<br />
therefore moved back to<br />
filmmaking. I went South and<br />
worked as Rajiv Ravi’s assistant<br />
in three Tamil films there.<br />
Thereafter I worked with<br />
another DOP, Rajkumar on two<br />
films and in 2007 I came back<br />
to Mumbai to work on my first<br />
project Gal Gale Nighale, a<br />
Marathi film produced by Kedar<br />
Shinde, as independent DOP.<br />
Are you satisfied working in the<br />
Marathi film Industry?<br />
I look on it as a challenge. The<br />
budgets are well short of a crore<br />
and though we use good<br />
equipment and cameras (like<br />
the Ari 435) , we do not have as<br />
much at our disposal as that on<br />
a Hindi film set. So we are<br />
always cutting corners and<br />
trying to achieve better results<br />
despite the obvious handicaps.<br />
It has been a satisfactory<br />
experience so far and I have<br />
been able to learn much more<br />
than if I had started in Hindi<br />
cinema. But now I do feel it is<br />
time for me to give Hindi cinema<br />
a try.<br />
Have you been using <strong>Kodak</strong> in all<br />
your films?<br />
Once you get used to getting the<br />
kind of results you get on <strong>Kodak</strong><br />
then it’s hard to go back to<br />
a n o t h e r p r o d u c t . I a m<br />
completely satisfied by the<br />
results that <strong>Kodak</strong> gives me. I<br />
usually use Vision 3 . It gives me<br />
unbelievable results. Canvas was<br />
the first film I shot on <strong>Kodak</strong><br />
Vision 3 and I used it for exterior<br />
shoots as well as interior shoots.<br />
The saturation levels were<br />
f a n t a s t i c . I w a s a b l e t o<br />
experiment a lot with the film<br />
and it all came good. My work<br />
on Canvas was appreciated by<br />
most people from the industry.<br />
Producers and directors began<br />
to recognize my worth after<br />
that. For Partner I used 500T<br />
and when I checked it out on the<br />
telecine, again the results were<br />
just as I desired. The colour<br />
saturation levels are great and<br />
there are no grains despite the<br />
film being shot on Super 16. For<br />
Babu Band Baja, I am using 500T<br />
for the exterior shots and 250D<br />
for the interiors.<br />
How do make your decision on<br />
the stock you need to use for a<br />
particular film?<br />
The story is the deciding factor<br />
for me. Depending on the story I<br />
take a call on the stock. I read<br />
the script, do the requisite test<br />
shoot and only then do I finalize<br />
what I would need as raw stock.<br />
When I was shooting Canvas in<br />
which there were a series of<br />
murders to shoot, I had to<br />
specifically test 500T stock to<br />
see whether the night shots<br />
would appear consistent or not.<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> brings consistency to my<br />
work and DI helps when there is<br />
a need to bring in new elements.<br />
I am in fact looking forward to<br />
using <strong>Kodak</strong>’s new Vision3 stock<br />
which I am told is the best you<br />
can have!<br />
Attar Singh Saini’s life could have taken a<br />
different turn if he had done Karan Johar’s<br />
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, a film he was first offered.<br />
But what’s commendable about his<br />
achievements as a cameraman is that his<br />
work has received praise even though the<br />
films he has shot haven’t fared well. From<br />
Chocolate to Radio, Saini has tried to make his<br />
visuals as life-like as possible and make<br />
optimum use of location light and ambience.<br />
He wants to be part of a successful film and<br />
hopes that a good script will lead the way.<br />
Success is a State of Mind<br />
Attar Singh Saini tells Deepa Deosthalee that he is not disheartened by the fate of some of his films.<br />
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal<br />
It’s been a long journey for Attar Singh Saini<br />
from a small village in Haryana to the<br />
glamorous world of Hindi cinema. The shy<br />
cinematographer had no interest in films<br />
through his growing years, but knew he<br />
wanted to do something different. “My<br />
brother couldn’t fulfill his dream of going to<br />
the FTII and so he asked me to apply. I learnt<br />
that there were just six seats in each<br />
department and knew I couldn’t get in without<br />
some filmi connection. Yet I applied and<br />
forgot about it,” he remembers. But he did get<br />
a call for the interview and orientation course<br />
and once he got through, it was a short step<br />
to getting hooked. “Luckily, it didn’t matter<br />
what you already knew when you entered the<br />
“Success is important. If your<br />
visuals are good, but the film<br />
Institute. All they see is how much interest<br />
you have in the subject. And for me it was an<br />
eye-opener because I didn’t know this kind of<br />
cinema exists. When I saw films like Bicycle<br />
Thieves, 8 ½, Knife in the Water and the films of<br />
Andrei Tarkovsky, images from these films<br />
were imprinted on my mind.”<br />
Saini recalls how his teachers encouraged him<br />
to learn from nature and recreate reality.<br />
Gradually he learnt to observe things closely<br />
and study light conditions in every situation.<br />
“Now it’s become second nature.” Fresh from<br />
the Institute, he assisted Surinder Saini on<br />
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na. “I spent several years<br />
doing television shows for MTV, single-<br />
episode series and serials like Baat Ban Jaye<br />
and Ye Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum. The amount of<br />
hard work I put into television was akin to<br />
working on a feature film. I didn’t give up on<br />
the medium because it is a flat image. My<br />
reference point was always cinema.”<br />
fails, you don’t get work.”<br />
20 21<br />
Chocolate<br />
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
Till one day, Karan Johar approached him for<br />
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. “I showed him my work<br />
and he liked it and said I was on. I told him I<br />
was going away for a month to get married<br />
and by the time I got back, things had<br />
changed and they had hired another<br />
cameraman because they wanted someone<br />
with experience. I think very few people, like<br />
Ram Gopal Varma, have the knack to nurture<br />
new talent.” Eventually, Saini made his debut<br />
with a small film called 7 ½ Phere directed by<br />
Ishan Trivedi. But he got noticed for the stylish<br />
look he gave to Vivek Agnihotri’s 2005 film<br />
Chocolate, which was inspired by the<br />
Hollywood cult film The Usual Suspects. “It is<br />
my endeavour to simulate naturalistic<br />
patterns. In Chocolate I tried to make optimum<br />
use of the ambience of the London locations<br />
where we shot. I usually try to use the light<br />
conditions available on location instead of<br />
injecting lighting which doesn’t match the<br />
scene. I believe simplicity is more difficult to<br />
achieve than hamming.”<br />
While Chocolate didn’t succeed commercially,<br />
his work was widely appreciated and the<br />
visuals were used as reference material for<br />
commercials and films. “Success is important.<br />
If your visuals are good, but the film fails, you<br />
don’t get work. Failure has hampered my<br />
progress, by my work has helped me pull<br />
along. After a point it is disappointing to find<br />
that your work doesn’t get noticed.” And that<br />
seems to have been the story of his career.<br />
Though the moderate success of Dhan Dhana<br />
Dhan Goal may have helped. “Goal has been<br />
my most challenging film so far because being<br />
a sports subject, one was dealing with difficult<br />
situations. Firstly I had to get used to the<br />
rhythm of the game of football, then we had<br />
heavy tele shots and multiple characters and<br />
locations.” Saini’s recent film Radio too didn’t<br />
f a r e w e l l , a l t h o u g h h i s w o r k a s<br />
cinematographer was widely appreciated.<br />
Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai<br />
Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai<br />
Chocolate<br />
“The amount of hard work<br />
I put into television was akin<br />
to working on a feature film.<br />
I didn’t give up on the medium<br />
because it is a flat image.<br />
My reference point was<br />
always cinema.”<br />
Next he is working on Milap Zaveri’s Jaane<br />
Kahan Se Aayi Hai. “It has elements of science<br />
fiction and is the story of a girl from outer<br />
space who comes to our world looking for<br />
love.” He also intersperses his film work with<br />
commercials and has shot for innumerable<br />
brands and products including Hyundai<br />
Santro, Sunfeast Biscuits, Rexona deo, Surf<br />
Excel, Pepsodent etc. “Today ad films are<br />
getting more realistic and you can create the<br />
same kind of mood that you do for feature<br />
films. Which is why ad filmmakers prefer<br />
working with feature film DOPs. Advertising<br />
comes with its own satisfaction. You finish<br />
your work in two-three days and because the<br />
scripts are short, in a way, complete<br />
perfection can be achieved.”<br />
Saini who likes to play with the tone of an<br />
image and explore darker areas swears by<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> stock. “It gives me the realistic feel I<br />
want. Also the consistency of stock from<br />
batch to batch is unmatched. I like the new<br />
Vision 3 stock – it’s really life-like in terms of<br />
highlight and details.”<br />
22 23<br />
Radio<br />
Chocolate<br />
Radio Radio<br />
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal<br />
“I like the<br />
new Vision 3 stock –<br />
it’s really life like<br />
in terms of<br />
highlight and details.”
24<br />
Flagged Off<br />
Rahul Jadhav shares his career plans with Deepa Deosthalee<br />
Young cinematographer Rahul Jadhav is trying to make the transition from Marathi to Hindi<br />
cinema and from being a DOP to making his own film. A veteran in television and well-known in<br />
Marathi cinema for films like Aga Bai Arechya and Zenda, he hopes to direct his first film in the near<br />
future.<br />
Jadhav would have had a bureaucratic career if his newfound love for cinema didn’t pulled him in a<br />
different direction. With his middle-class Maharashtrian background, it was obvious his family<br />
preferred he took a good government job instead of roughing it out in the unpredictable world of<br />
film. Fortunately, his father, a still photographer himself, encouraged him, and he became an<br />
assistant to Rakesh Sarang instead. “My father was doing stills for the serial Shriman Shrimati. One<br />
day he couldn’t go to work and I stood in for him. Sarang saw me at work and asked if I’d like to join<br />
him,” he remembers.<br />
He spent nearly five years with the senior DOP before taking off on his own, first in television and<br />
then films. “I shot 700 episodes of Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka and over 300 of Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. The<br />
latter was very exciting because I approached it like a feature film and experimented a lot with the<br />
look, particularly when we shot her make-over.”<br />
Before long, he was DOP on the sets of Kedar Shinde’s Aga Bai Arechya, loosely inspired by What<br />
Women Want. “I walked into that film with absolutely no experience of working on film. Along with<br />
my partner Raja Satankar (they work together as a team), we split the job between us, made<br />
storyboards and just rid on our confidence to see through the project.” It’s unusual to see a<br />
cinematographer duo. How do they divide the tasks between them? “Sometimes we shoot<br />
independently, or if we’re involved with the same film, one of us operates the camera while the<br />
other handles the lighting etc.” Jadhav has shot a dozen films so far, most of them in Marathi,<br />
though his last release was Tabu-Sharman Joshi starrer Toh Baat Pakki. “Working on Marathi films<br />
can be challenging because often producers don’t have the resources to give the DOP his choice of<br />
locations. You have to make compromises due to budget constraints. When we did Aga Bai Arechya,<br />
it was the costliest Marathi film ever at Rs. 1.5 crore.”<br />
Stills from Aga Bai Arechya<br />
“<strong>Kodak</strong> film is so good,<br />
it realizes my vision<br />
and captures<br />
everything exactly<br />
the way I see it.”<br />
Zenda<br />
Given that the market for Marathi cinema is<br />
relatively small and yet, the competition is<br />
with the much glossier world of Bollywood,<br />
there’s always an element of uncertainty.<br />
Jadhav’s last Marathi film Avadhoot Gupte’s<br />
Zenda, for instance, didn’t get the kind of pre-<br />
release push it needed and instead, landed up<br />
in a controversy, thereby spoiling its chances<br />
of box-office success. “We had expected<br />
some sort of political backlash to the film<br />
because of its theme, but it came from<br />
unexpected quarters. By the time it released,<br />
pirated prints were already in circulation all<br />
over the state.” Zenda is about the split in a<br />
political party, the feud between two warring<br />
cousins and the ordinary grassroots level<br />
workers whose lives get affected by these<br />
upheavals. The film isn’t flattering to the<br />
political fraternity and allusions to at least<br />
three prominent Marathi leaders are obvious.<br />
“We’d expected Raj Thackeray to react, but he<br />
was surprisingly sporting about the film and<br />
instead, we faced resistance from a group<br />
we’d never heard of, called Swabhiman<br />
(formed by Maharashtra revenue minister<br />
Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh).”<br />
For Jadhav, Zenda was a turning point since<br />
apart from being the DOP, he was also the<br />
film’s Associate Director. “I set my role as<br />
DOP aside for this film because it was so<br />
strongly driven by characterisation that the<br />
camerawork had to be unobtrusive. It also<br />
gave me the opportunity to think from the<br />
director’s point-of-view.” And that’s his next<br />
target — to direct a film of his own. Jadhav is<br />
working on two scripts simultaneously, a<br />
comedy and an offbeat subject against the<br />
backdrop of the Naxalites and farmer suicides<br />
in Vidarbha. “When I approach producers,<br />
some of them like my scripts, but want me to<br />
give them a guarantee that the film will<br />
recover its cost. That’s something no director<br />
can give.”<br />
But whenever his debut film rolls, he’s sure<br />
he’ll shoot it on <strong>Kodak</strong>, because “I’ve never<br />
worked with any other stock. I don’t even<br />
know what other stock -- <strong>Kodak</strong> film is so<br />
good, it realizes my vision and captures<br />
everything exactly the way I see it.”<br />
25
Bright<br />
Spark<br />
Divya K meets aspiring cinematographer<br />
Archana Borhade in Chennai.<br />
Archana Borhade is like a bright spark of energy in the film industry. An<br />
engineering graduate, she worked with Wipro Technologies as a<br />
software consultant for a while before turning to where her heart truly<br />
lead her — cinematography. She is currently working as an associate<br />
cinematographer on the Hindi film Joker.<br />
Archana says, “To me, cinematography is to film what soul is to the<br />
body. Whether it is good or bad, stunning or lousy, pretty or gritty it’s<br />
what makes a film and its story visible to us. When you are a<br />
cinematographer and you are looking through the eyepiece of the<br />
camera at the movie unfolding within the frame that you set, with the<br />
lighting that you arranged and you see it happen a millionth of a second<br />
earlier than the rest of the crew crowded around the monitor, there’s a<br />
certain high it gives you and I want to live for that. That’s why its<br />
cinematography for me.<br />
“My interest in cinema started during my childhood when I was the<br />
preferred storyteller of the class. Years later, before my third engineering<br />
term exams, when I was bedridden in the hospital and introspecting<br />
about my life and career choices, childhood memories came flooding<br />
back and I realized that cinema was my calling; I had to tell stories, I had<br />
to make movies because that’s the only way I could be truly happy.<br />
Young<br />
Guns<br />
“I took the Mindscreen Film Institute’s six-month associate<br />
cinematographer programme and was the first female student to be<br />
admitted there. We learnt about different cameras, lensing, camera<br />
angles, screen grammar and cinema appreciation accompanied by<br />
practical classes for different types of lighting, composition, camera<br />
movement besides sessions for story boarding, architecture, painting<br />
and field trips. We shot a 20-minute short film called Aasai Mugam<br />
Marandhu Poche, a teenage love story with a tragic twist. This gave us<br />
first hand experience with script work and shot breakdown, telecine and<br />
DI, even the background score. The script included a wide range of<br />
lighting setups and moods.<br />
“Rajiv Menon and I shared a great student-teacher rapport. His sense of<br />
music and rhythm is inspiring and he has an immaculate taste in colors<br />
and textures. It all reflects in the work he does, each of which is<br />
overwhelmingly beautiful.<br />
“I have worked as an assistant on Ghajini, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and as an<br />
associate on Drohi (Tamil). I also did second unit work on Drohi and Peter<br />
Gaya Kaam Se (yet to be released). All the films that I have worked on<br />
were shot on <strong>Kodak</strong> and all the stocks whether it’d be 250D or 50D or<br />
500T have been impeccable in performance.<br />
“The <strong>Kodak</strong> 5219 500T stock is one of the most brilliant stocks ever. Its<br />
latitude on the highlight side is just spellbinding. So many times during<br />
an outdoor shoot, we took a reflected reading of the sky and thought<br />
‘Oh, this is going to bleach out for sure’ but then when we went back to<br />
the DI suite and saw the details in the clouds, it just blew us away.<br />
Whether it is for outdoors or indoors, it is just the perfect stock to me<br />
but I still have a huge crush over the <strong>Kodak</strong> 5201 50D for the kind of rich<br />
blacks that it brings out. It’s just beautiful.<br />
“I also have learnt a lot during my visits to the <strong>Kodak</strong> labs, Mumbai<br />
talking to the qualified professionals such as Mr. Suresh Iyer, Mr.<br />
Solomon and Mr. Amudhavanan who are always so encouraging.<br />
“I have worked with Mr. Ravi K. Chandran and he’s a perfectionist who<br />
brings extraordinary levels of discipline and creativity to his work. It is<br />
just fascinating how much you can learn by just watching him at work.<br />
“I also worked with Mr. Santosh Sivan on one of his short films and it<br />
was an experience of a lifetime. He’s daring, impulsive, a creative genius<br />
and an absolute master of visual storytelling. Mr. Alphonse is a great<br />
teacher and brings a high level of professionalism and articulateness to<br />
his work<br />
“My dream is to become a good cinematographer; to be able to bring<br />
stories to life on the screen and make moments memorable and<br />
evocative, to make the characters relatable and be instrumental in<br />
making cinema that lets the audience have the great movie experience.”<br />
Child<br />
Prodigy<br />
He is just 14, but is already regarded as an accomplished filmmaker. At<br />
the age of nine he had directed his first feature film titled Care of<br />
Footpath featuring many well-known artistes like Jackie Shroff, Sudeep,<br />
B.Jayshree, Saurabh Shukla and others. Before his first venture as a film<br />
director which surprised many, Master Kishan was already a successful<br />
child artiste in the Kannada film industry, having won several awards.<br />
Kishan was born to a family of film enthusiasts and his parents had a<br />
creative bent of mind. His father B.R.Srikanth was working in Central<br />
Government and was associated with many film personalities and even<br />
assisted in the story and music departments. His mother Shylaja<br />
Srikanth had worked as a music director for many films.<br />
His father says, "From his young age, Kishan showed enormous interest<br />
in learning the process of filmmaking. He showed talent in<br />
understanding computer graphics, Photoshop and had even shocked<br />
many computer hardware experts with his knowledge of computers. He<br />
was also a voracious reader of film related books and was browsing the<br />
internet to know many things about films. Since he was academically<br />
brilliant, we did not oppose his eagerness to learn many things. He had<br />
started to act in Kannada films at the age of three and was responding<br />
very quickly to the instructions received from the film directors and his<br />
actor colleagues. He had won many awards as a child artiste in films.<br />
But when he first told us that he wants to direct a film and had a script<br />
ready, we were really astonished. He was not even eight, when we heard<br />
him talking about directing a film. But he had convinced of his abilities<br />
before we decided to encourage and back him in his endeavour."<br />
When Master Kishan announced that he would direct a film, many<br />
people did not believe it. During the launch of the film, a team of<br />
journalists and filmmakers questioned him about various aspects of<br />
filmmaking and were astonished at the way Kishan cleared their doubts.<br />
He was able to speak authoritatively on the achievements of Steven<br />
Spielberg, Guru Datt, James Cameron, Mani Ratnam, Shankar and many<br />
others. He was able to analyze lighting patterns and camera angles in<br />
some sequences of top films. Jackie Shroff, who had acted in a special<br />
role in his film Care of Foot Path, said that he had accepted the offer to<br />
act in a nine-year-old boy’s film mainly because he was convinced that<br />
the young director was a genius and was up to something which was<br />
certain to be critically appreciated and win the hearts of the people.<br />
Shroff addressed a press conference after finishing his work in this<br />
historic film to hail Master Kishan as the most focussed director who<br />
Young<br />
Guns<br />
26 27<br />
had a firm grip on his script and the team.<br />
Kishan says that he was inspired to write the script of the film after<br />
closely watching the rag pickers in the street. “I wanted to send a<br />
positive message through this film. I just wanted to say what I strong<br />
believed in, that hard work will certainly pay dividends and any child<br />
who is brought up in poor surroundings can make it big if he is<br />
determined to achieve something."<br />
Master Kishan’s first directorial venture Care of Footpath won the Swarna<br />
Kamal (Golden Lotus) Award for the Best Children’s film in the year<br />
2006-07. The film also won many prestigious awards from the<br />
Karnataka Government including the Best Children's Film award and the<br />
Best Child Actor for Kishan. His achievement was recognized by the<br />
Guinness Book of World Records; Kishan was the World's Youngest<br />
Director of a professionally made feature length film at the age of nine.<br />
He replaced Sydney Ling who was just 13 in 1973 when he had directed<br />
the Dutch film Lex the Wonderdog.<br />
A year ago, Master Kishan received the National Award for Exceptional<br />
Achievement by the Union Government’s Ministry of Women and Child<br />
Development. The film also ran successfully for more than 100 days in<br />
its theatrical release.<br />
R.G.Vijayasarathy tracks<br />
the achievements of Master Kishan,<br />
officially the youngest filmnmaker<br />
in the world
28<br />
M. Venkatesan is a qualified<br />
ad filmmaker from Chennai, who<br />
has worked extensively in the<br />
area of advertising, having<br />
produced and directed more<br />
than 40 projects — ad films,<br />
s h o r t f i l m s , p r o m o s ,<br />
documentaries, internet video<br />
ads and music videos.<br />
He is a film school graduate,<br />
who specialized and obtained a<br />
D.F.Tech in Film Direction from<br />
the L.V.Prasad Film and TV<br />
Academy. Since then, he has<br />
done ads and popular films and<br />
handled corporate brands like<br />
Preethi Mixes, Federal Bank, City<br />
Developers, Grundfos Pumps,<br />
C B a z a a r , A i r b e e , S r i<br />
Ve n k a t e s w a r a N e t r a l a y a<br />
H o s p i t a l s a n d S u r i e n<br />
Pharamacuticals etc.<br />
In 2007 his short film, Kshama,<br />
based on the early life of<br />
Mahatma Gandhi was screened<br />
at the IIFF- Indian International<br />
Film Festival ’07 at Chennai, and<br />
in the same year was the official<br />
Indian entry for the Gandhian<br />
Panorama Film Festival and was<br />
awarded the Jury Prize. It also<br />
won the Best Film Prize at<br />
Auteurs Short Film Festival<br />
organized by St.Thomas College,<br />
Chennai.<br />
DOCUMENTING A LEGEND<br />
In 2009 he scripted and directed Kadhal Mannan - (The King of a lot of contributions of the<br />
M. Venkatesan talks<br />
about the making<br />
of his biopic on<br />
Gemini Ganesan.<br />
In 2007 he produced and<br />
d i re c t e d a d o c u m e n t a r y,<br />
Madurai Jallikathu – Bull Fighting<br />
in India, for the New York Times,<br />
which was well received on the<br />
international television and<br />
internet markets.<br />
Romance) for Dr. Kamala Selvaraj under her banner Alamelu Creations.<br />
This was South India’s first biographical film, in Tamil, Telugu and<br />
English. The decision to make a biopic on Gemini Ganesan, one of the<br />
legends of Tamil cinema, was not easy as many of the places, landmarks<br />
and other things present in Tamil Nadu and rest of the South India had<br />
changed; most of his contemporizes were no longer alive, and the small<br />
set that was still around, was above the age group of 80.<br />
The never-ending discussions about production and logistics took place<br />
at all levels, since a filmmaker doing a period film starting in British Era<br />
India demanded that the visuals speak of the time and feel of early 20th<br />
century Tamil Nadu — Pudhukottai, in particular — and the recreation of<br />
the film studios of Madras of the 1940s was a challenge.<br />
Says the director, “The first and only option in my mind was film, although<br />
the lure of digital camera and digital formats was there from all the fronts,<br />
none of them was about the quality or feel, but only in the domain of<br />
complex tricky economics. Super 35mm Film was the format finalized and<br />
shot using Arricam LT at 3 Perf, to save on the precious little moments<br />
which can be brought to life without cutting in between a difficult shot of<br />
a child artiste in the drama part, or interrupting a renowned speaker at a<br />
time when he is making a crucial point in the documentary part of the<br />
film. Although this is a not a commercial film, the kind of production<br />
values is very important, not just because it is Tamil cinema’s first<br />
biographical film on a film actor, but also for the need to represent the<br />
culture, heritage and prosperity of Tamil Nadu worldwide.<br />
“Since It was a three-language output in Tamil, Telugu and English, with<br />
lots of period portions in the Brahminical village of Pudhukottai (1920s),<br />
Madras City of the 1940s and Gemini Studios representing the film<br />
industry of the post-Independence era (1945-48), the concept<br />
discussed with the art and production departments was not to put a<br />
sepia tone in the post production nor shoot in black and white, but to<br />
recreate the era using a specific but authentic color palate just as how<br />
the Tamil language and the slang of that era was researched and brought<br />
out. Since it was a more than two language output in the docu-drama<br />
genre involving a drama part which runs for the first 50 minutes and a<br />
docu part which runs for 60 min, the need to have a strong origination to<br />
have an effective DI was very essential. Although a lot of digital formats<br />
are available with a variety of combinations for post tweaking, film is the<br />
only format which is time proven as far as archiving of content is<br />
concerned. As a qualified filmmaker I feel the need for making a<br />
biographical film is not just for commercial reasons, but to tell<br />
tomorrows generation what was prevalent yesterday not just in the<br />
world alone but also in the field of film. Although cinema is a modern art,<br />
older masters has not been<br />
documented and this is one<br />
such attempt to recreate the<br />
screen magic of late acting<br />
legend Gemini Ganesan.<br />
“Film is the most portable and<br />
efficient format to work for<br />
documenting people and places,<br />
not just because it is cable free<br />
unlike the so called high-end HD<br />
cameras which promise near<br />
point and shoot cinematography,<br />
but for the reason that lensing<br />
and recreation of a certain<br />
cinematic feel and an emotional<br />
look is possible with a magic<br />
ingredient of film.<br />
“Kaadhal Mannan was shot on<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> stocks, with an Arricam<br />
LT, 3 –Perf, with live sound with<br />
Cooke S4i Lenses– <strong>Kodak</strong><br />
5207–250D 500T for indoors<br />
involving sets of period houses<br />
and recreating of film sets of<br />
1946 Tamil film Chandralekha,<br />
and also for celebrity interviews,<br />
and 5219 – 500T for outdoor<br />
shoots in harsh conditions like<br />
semi-vegetative villages, lakes<br />
and shoots with elephants and<br />
other animals etc.<br />
“Globally even on advanced HD<br />
Broadcasting TVs, more than 60<br />
percent of the prime time<br />
content is shot on Film. TV<br />
series like The Shield and Sex and<br />
the City and low-budget films<br />
like Leaving Las Vegas (1995)<br />
were shot on 16mm film, and yet<br />
the quality and visual appeal of<br />
it remains timeless.”<br />
Regional Offices<br />
Mumbai<br />
Rachna Pawar<br />
Tel No: 91-22-66416762 / 66<br />
Fax No: 91-22-66416769<br />
Email: rachna.pawar@kodak.com<br />
Mumbai Cinelab<br />
Aparna Bhusane<br />
Tel No: 91-22-67026600 / 02<br />
Fax No: 91-22-67026666<br />
Email: aparna.bhusane@kodak.com<br />
Chennai<br />
M.T. Amuthavanan<br />
Origination Products<br />
Tel No: 91-44-2362 3086 / 9840333350<br />
Fax No: 91-44-2362 2522<br />
Email: mohankrishnan.amuthavanan@kodak.com<br />
Sandheev Nair<br />
Deputy Manager<br />
Entertainment Imaging<br />
From document imaging in the copier industry to motion picture imaging in the entertainment<br />
industry — the journey has been simply exhilarating. I have been working for two years in the EI<br />
department at <strong>Kodak</strong>, handling sales of ECN in the Hindi feature film segment and also marketing<br />
activities in film institutes and it has been a thorough learning experience. Dealing with new<br />
products, new markets, interacting with creative minds and students has been my main focus area.<br />
Oodles of energy, creativity and passion drive this industry and working with <strong>Kodak</strong>, puts me in the<br />
limelight. For me, it's All Work, No Compromise!<br />
Movies for me have always been a way to spend a lazy weekend. However, associating with <strong>Kodak</strong><br />
has changed my perception completely. Today, I not only enjoy movies for their content, but also<br />
appreciate the finer nuances of filmmaking, especially cinematography. My other interests include<br />
experimenting with new cuisines, solving puzzles, listening to music, reading and travelling.<br />
Chennai<br />
T.M. Prasanth<br />
Distribution Products<br />
Tel No: 91-44-2362 3086 / 9840489900<br />
Fax No: 91-44-2362 2522<br />
Email: prasanth.mohan@kodak.com<br />
Bangalore<br />
Ananth A. Padmanabha<br />
Tel No: 91-98860 08642<br />
Email: anantha.padmanabha@kodak.com<br />
Kolkata<br />
Chirag Gandhi<br />
Mob: 9830915152<br />
Tel No: 91-33-30286254<br />
Fax No: 91-33-30286270<br />
Email: chirag.gandhi@kodak.com<br />
Motion Picture Film<br />
Hyderabad<br />
S. Gowrishankar<br />
Distribution Products<br />
Tel No: 91-9849015950<br />
Fax No: 91-40-2381 6181<br />
Email: santhanam.gowrishankar@kodak.com<br />
Hyderabad<br />
Surya Basa<br />
Origination Products,<br />
Tel No: 91-9885823238<br />
Fax No: 91-40-2381 6181<br />
Email: surya.basa@kodak.com<br />
Kerala<br />
Visakh K.J.<br />
Mob: 91-9895708469<br />
Tel No: 91-484-2366230 / 36<br />
Fax No: 91-484-2363211<br />
Email: visak.kj@kodak.com<br />
For more information; visit www.kodak.co.in/go/motion
R A F E Y M E H M O O D<br />
Filmmaking for me is like a great coming together of<br />
ideas and people.<br />
I grew up in Allahabad. When visitors would come over,<br />
we, along with them and their cameras, would be taken<br />
for boat rides to see the Sangam. Since midstream, it<br />
would be difficult to spot the actual confluence of Ganga<br />
and Jamuna, we watched out for the slight difference in<br />
the colour of the two waters. The mythical third river<br />
Saraswati, flowed below and was invisible. We as kids<br />
just dipped our hands in the water to try and touch it.<br />
Filmmaking is a bit like the boat ride: it carries the<br />
possibility of the spectacle of the two great rivers<br />
meeting; the nuances of the subtle waters, both are<br />
buoyed by some kind of deep underlying faith.<br />
I passed out of FTII in 1989. When I shot the climax of<br />
Haasil on the banks of the Triveni Sangam it was as if<br />
many things had come together.<br />
In 2007, a crew from 12 different countries assembled to<br />
shoot the Haj for the Imax film Journey to Mecca..In<br />
footsteps of Ibn e Batuta. On the third afternoon of the<br />
Haj, we perched ourselves on top of a minaret of the<br />
Kaaba to take a long computer-driven time-lapse shot on<br />
this spectacular format. As the evening fell we saw a<br />
million pilgrims perform their sacred circling of the<br />
Kaaba called “Tawaaf”. It was staggering to think how<br />
this event would unfold in subtle shifts of light over<br />
possibly a five-storey high screen.<br />
While units come together and part, my association with<br />
<strong>Kodak</strong> is a continuous one. I have always found myself<br />
testing the new stocks they develop. I am a great fan of<br />
their researchers who have provided uniform standards<br />
for this visual art, which spreads across the globe.<br />
I think of <strong>Kodak</strong> as an institution… they preserve and<br />
bring together many ways of seeing.<br />
I know all cinematographers work with a spirit of<br />
inventiveness and endurance. The erstwhile DOPs and<br />
my seniors stand like luminaries on the path of<br />
Cinematography. In a sense they have already thrown<br />
much light to mark the path of our journey.<br />
(Rafey Mahmood’s DOP credits for features include<br />
Mithya, Haasil, Mixed Doubles and the Imax film —<br />
Journey to Mecca in Footsteps of Ibn e Batuta.<br />
He shoots commercials and is a filmmaking teacher.<br />
He has also won a National Award for Cinematography.)