 |
| Andrew |
When the film Ullasamgaa Utsahamgaa.. was released, all the reviews that I read had one positive point in common - everyone seemed to have only one opinion about the photography of the film - that it was great! I thought of calling Mr. Andrew, the film's cinematographer, and wanted to congratulate him, but I waited until I saw the film. Once I saw the film, I was really bowled over by the camerawork, with each scene looking like a beautiful postcard-kind greeting or a poster! I called him and congratulated him right then, and we spoke some more. Here are the excerpts from the brief chitchat we had, exclusively presented at TeluguCinema.Com:
Sri: How did your interest in camera start?
Andrew: I am basically from Bangalore. My father used to work for Natural Wildlife. I was thus interested in wildlife since my childhood and I started taking photographs of the wildlife. Later, I started working for fashion photography and the money I thus earned was in turn spent on wildlife photography! I won around 100 National and 20 International awards between 1990 and 1997. I was the youngest wildlife photographer in India to have received the award, among more than 400 participants and 4000 entries!
Sri: Being successful in still photography, how did you choose to join films? How did you get a chance to work under P.C. Sriram?
Andrew: After winning a couple of awards, I was thinking what to do next, and cinema came to my mind immediately, as I was always a movie buff! I packed my luggage went and met my guru P.C. Sriram. After seeing a couple of my pictures, he liked them a lot and agreed to give me an opportunity to assist him. That's the most unforgettable day in my life, because I know how difficult it is to join him.
Sri: Tell me something about your guru Sri P.C. Sriram?
Andrew: He is one of the best human beings and the best guru! I learnt so many things from him - not just technical things but other things too. I assisted him for 5 years ...I worked for a couple of movies and a couple of commercials. I worked for movies like Alai Payuthey (2000) (dubbed as Sakhi in Telugu), Vaanam Vasappadum (2005) (directed by P.C. Sriram), Kadalar Dinam (Premikula Roju in Telugu, directed by Kathir) are some of the films which I worked for. Apart from feature films, I worked for many ad films along with him. We were used to getting involved in post-production and pre-production work tio, including costumes, art, etc. It's very difficult with others, but for me, I can say my guru is God's gift!
Sri: K.V. Anand, Late Jeeva, Thiru are some of the other noted cameramen from among P.C. Sriram disciples, I think...
Andrew: K.V. Anand sir and Late Jeeva are my seniors. Thiru was also my senior but we worked together, I can say..
Sri: Did you work on any other projects?
Andrew: I worked as an operative cameraman for two international projects. One of them was Shadow of the Cobra shot at Ramoji Film City. Another one was Bokshu - The Myth shot in the Himalayas and directed by renowned Malayalam film director Shyamprasad. The latter won many awards in film festivals...
