the years from Lucknow, to Mumbai / Bombay in pursuit of my dreams. And the companies have ranged from organizations, TV stations to ad agencies and Features. Despite all my accomplishments and obviously varied skills, I remain very true to my first love, and that is the love for cinematography.
I believe that the DOP has one primary job: to serve the director s vision of the story. Some DOP seem bent on making a different movie than the one the director is making – such behaviour is completely unprofessional, even silly. I strive to maintain a fully professional attitude whether we are shooting 16/ 35mm film, High Def 24P or Video. Shooting is shooting; I try to make every shot the best it can be.
One of the great pleasures of filmmaking is the collaboration. I take great pains and efforts to put in nothing but the best i can into each shot. I try to understand the vision that the director is striving to bring to the fore- front, presenting that vision in all its totality and making it as realistic as possible then becomes my sole purpose.
Some directors prefer to control every aspect of the image, and at the other extreme, some prefer to concentrate on directing the actors and pretty much leave the photography up to me. Most commonly, of course, majority of director s fit in somewhere the middle. I am completely comfortable working either ways.
The DOP has another job, of course, and that is to help the production to stay on schedule and within the prescribed budget. I take those responsibilities very seriously as well. Being a Director of Photography is much more than just being good at lighting and camerawork (although those are primary, of course); it is also very much a “management” job: you are in charge of a