CINEMATOGRAPHER GAVEMIC U ARY INTERVIEW

I am a Tamilian, born in Tanjore but settled in Pondycherry. My father is retired from police service, mom a house wife and my younger sister is a fashion designer. In my growing up years, I was interested in photography but was not much into cinema.

My grandfather was a photographer and was my inspiration to take to the camera. He had a way with kids and did the right things to make them comfortable and get the apt emotion from them for his pictures. This, to me, was magical and that’s what pulled me into photography. I used to observe him keenly and admired him much.

I was eleven years old when my dad got me a Yashika and I started clicking unmindful of what I was photographing. People started appreciating my work. Later I took the SLR from my grandfather and started using it. The camera was always with me and I used to take pictures wherever I went and that’s how I took to photography.

I am generally inclined to spirituality and I came across my ‘guru’ who was born in France and raised in Hong Kong at a very early age. He was the one who initiated me into Buddhism. He talked to me about karma, consciousness and allied spiritual subjects. I used to spend most of my time with him and was into meditation and it kind of had a calming effect on me.
 

My actual name was Hariharan and my guru one day asked me the meaning of it and questioned, “What gives you this name”. I had no answer. He said the name had to talk and wondered about my passion. I said I wanted to become a cinematographer. I was 15 then. He said, “Your name has to vibrate” and talked about the importance of vibrations generated from a name and suggested my current name. I asked for the meaning and after much persuasion, he told me what my name meant and I liked it very much

My father is not into films and it took some time to convince him about my aspirations. Mom saw the talent in me and dad looked for security in the path that I was to take. I told them that I would try in the industry for a while and if I did not succeed within a time span, would come back, set up a studio and make my living. This kind of convinced dad and he let me chase my dreams. 

I went to Pune Film institute and was there for three months. Every evening, there used to be film screening and I saw films that are not available in internet or any other place. This widened my understanding of films and gave me confidence. Then I started assisting people who were doing their final year projects and word got around that there is this man who can help them out with their work. And I became the busiest, assisting people with their work. My interactions with industry folks increased and I gathered good experience on the way.

In 2007 I started as an independent cinematographer shooting commercials and documentaries. Although it gave me enough money, there was no satisfaction. I wanted to work for a feature film. In 2012, I got the Hindi film Mastram directed by Akilesh, one of the writers of Gangs of Wassepur. The producer said it was a low budget film and can’t pay me much. He said, if the film made business, he would give me 10% from it. I agreed. Just after a couple of days shoot, the producer saw what I shot and was quite impressed. He said he would sell the film with just my footages. I finished the film and satisfied my producer and director.

I always respect a director’s view as the film is his vision. Whenever I talk to a director, I try to see what is there in his subconscious mind. I will be the only one to look at this aspect because everyone looks at the other features that appear on the outside. I will be the only person who seeks answers to questions like ‘what has he written and why has he written this way?’ It took almost three months to study the script and understand it. I have read Jigarthanda script 25 times because I had to imbibe that in my mind. I thought I should not go to the extent of analyzing whether it is good or bad. My spiritual lineation helped me evaluate the various factors. 

We have a very strong visual understanding. I know his requirements as I have spent almost three months in pre-production which clearly gave an idea what would work out and what not. Our ideas were in sync and we had clarity on each other’s work that helped us deliver quality product.

Siddharth loved my work. He is an absolutely down to earth person and when he came to the sets he realized what type of workers we were. He will come whenever we call him, even at unearthly hours. We had good friendly relationship.

After we finished our first schedule, we were on our way to location hunt and I appreciated Siddharth’s work after seeing the rushes. He said, “The way you throw the light, it makes my acting pop up and look awesome”. That said it all!

Entire Madurai

No, I do one film at a time.

We want the audience to come to the theatre to watch Jigarthanda. We have worked together to give an engaging product.  That aside, it is a regular commercial film which will be liked by people.