CINEMATOGRAPHER RAVI K CHANDRAN INTERVIEW

Sometime it is the fear that brings out the best. People’s fear of their bosses makes them do their best. In my case, after every shot, I’d wonder what Rajeev Menon would say about it. I remember showing one of my Malayalam films to Rajeev Menon and after the film he was so outraged that he ordered me never to invite him for such badly made films.
 

Then followed a time when I’d never show any of my works to the people I respect. Dil Chata Hai was the first film that I invited Mani Ratnam for.
 

Art must conquer time. Decades later, people must appreciate your works. People celebrate The Godfather even today. After Thousands of years, we still admire the sculptures of Mahabalipuram.
 

But making such masterpiece is no easy task. Take a life of a photographer for example. He might have taken thousands of photographs in his career. But ask him to make a book on his works, he’ll probably pick 50 or 100 pictures. Put all those pictures together, It would span for a few seconds. That’s the case for all the artistes. Only a very few artistes like Kamal Haasan and Aamir Khan are capable of coming up with better works every time.
 

If you ask me to pick my best works, of all the films I’ve worked in, I’ll probably go with, Kannathil Muthamittal, Black, Dil Chatha Hai, Paheli, My Name is Khan and few others. Looking back, when I see I’m only able to pick five or six films as my best from my 25 year long career, it makes me wonder if I’d have made a better real estate dealer. I would have been richer.
 

Reinventing self is also very important to stay in the top. Always attempting something different is very important.

Cinematography is an intense art. Some has the gift of cinematography and some struggle to excel at it. I’m a struggler, while cinematography comes naturally to geniuses like PC Sreeram and Santosh Sivan. Not everyone is blessed with that skill.
 

I tried to replicate a certain shot of Balumahendra. I went to the same very location, took with me the assistants who worked with Balu sir during that shoot and tried to capture the same visual. Yet somehow Balu sir’s shot looked much better.
 

The difference between a good and a great cinematographer is actually the few inch difference in the placement of the camera. Yet, it is huge. You cannot help but admire all these geniuses.

That has always been the case. Starting from VK Murthy, who shot Kaagaz Ke Phool, the first Indian cinemascope film, there have been so many cinematographers and other techies from the South, who have made it huge in Bollywood. The reason being, the publicity that Tamil film Industry and Kerala Industry provides for the technicians. No other industry I know of interviews and promote cinematographers, like Tamil and Malayalam industry do. This trend is absolutely absent in the North. No one interviewed me when I did Black.
 

Everyone here knows who editor Anthony is. That’s not the case in the North. Even as a kid I was aware of cinematographers Vincent, PN Sundaram, S Maruthi Rao and others. Thanks to the South media that created a strong platform for technicians like me.

In the second part, we talk in detail about Yaan and the most expected film of all time, Marudhanayagam. Stay tuned!