R. Rathnavelu is a busy man, who is shuttlling between two film industries. With two star-studded projects currently under production, the ace lensman’s latest work as a cinematographer, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, released on October 2. A pre-independence era historical, Sye Raa.. boasts of a pan-Indian starcast that includes Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi and Kichcha Sudeep to name a few. Here are the excerpts from a telephonic conversation with the cinematographer.
Initally, Rathnavelu couldn't allot dates when the project (Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy) was at its initial stages. After some postponement, actor and Sye Raa's producer Ram Charan approached him again during the final schedule of director Sukumar’s Rangasthalam, for which Rathnavelu was the cinematographer, “I was keen on shooting one film at a time, hence I told the makers to wait till Rangasthalam gets completed.”
What piqued his curiosity was the biopic-like aspect of the script “Rarely do we get a story is based on a historical event that dates back to two-hundered and fifty years. Also I was interested in portraying the life of a freedom fighter.” The lensman believed that Sye Raa will propagate the ideals of Indian freedom struggle to the current generation