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| Sethil Kumar on Location |
Senthil debuted with the film
Aithe..! (2003) and did eight films in five years. Compared to other cinematographers, that may seem a small number of films but the films he worked showed his capacity which are on par with camera work in Hollywood films. All of his films were hit too. My association with Senthil started with
Sye, as we kept talking now and then. After the recent super hit
Magadheera, we spoke about the film only briefly, as he was newly married and was also busily working for Bhumika’s own production. We finally settled into a long conversation one late evening about
Magadheera. Here are the excerpts from the TC.Com exclusive interview:
Sri: How is your new life … this year you worked for
Arundhati and
Magadheera, and you married your lady love...
Senthil:
(Laughs) Which life? Personal or professional? Both are "colorful" so far...
Sri: Hmm, it's good to know that there are so far no complaints from your better half!
Senthil:
Who said there are no complaints…! (laughs) There are… (laughs) ...those routine complaints that I do not have time to spare as I was at the shootings, or scouting for locations, or involved in the post-production work most of the time.
Sri: (Laughs) Good! It's colorful, I now agree…! Lets us talk about
Magadheera now… The fall scene in the period part where the colors fade into black and white… it looks like an art work by Da Vinci. How did you did that?
Senthil: This is one of the very well-shot scenes in the film and also very well-composed sequence of the film. The director wanted the scene to look like a painting and so we composed every frame to look like one. It feels good when people notice it. Also, when we shoot what we like, our tastes - be it art, traditions, books, one's education, or even life in general - helps convey what we have to tell in a certain way. About the color fading in to "desaturated effect", the D.I. (Digital Intermediate) helped me in doing it. The sequence itself was shot on blue mat and was backed by some very good C.G. (computer graphics) work.
Sri: I think the valley and fog effects are C.G.?
Senthil:
Yes, all that was done by C.G.
Sri: What was your role in CGI (Computer-generated imagery)?
Senthil:
As the DOP (Director of Photography) of the film, I'm responsible for whatever is seen on the screen and I am involved in CGI at all stages such as pre-visualization, shooting, and post-production. We, as a team, require a certain effect, and I, in coordination with the director and visual effects supervisor, decide what to shoot in real and what can be done using CGI and how. We then shoot people or objects on blue/green mat with the required lighting, keeping in mind the end result.
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| Senthil on Shooting |
Sri: Who will take care of the color coordination in this part?
Senthil:
As a team, we look for a certain feel to the film at the start, and we shoot accordingly. After the shoot, color coordination has to be taken care of at various phases of the CG work. I do it with the CG team; when it comes to the overall color coordination of the shot, I take a call myself.
Sri: For the song
panchadaara bommaa bommaa..., we see clouds coming fast at the beginning of the song and greenery in Golconda... how did you bring all the beauty into capturing it?
Senthil:
(Laughs) I worked for three films at Golconda, namely
Sye,
Ashok, and
Yamadonga, of which two were with Rajamouli. So, we know the whole region of Golconda so much that I can be a better guide than anyone in Golconda now! The clouds shot was done in a different frame rate. We shot at one frame per second to bring that effect instead of the usual 24 frames per second. This song was one of the best-shot songs in my career, and I am very happy the way the greenery and beauty of Golconda region was exploited to suit the song.
Sri: Ravi (Art director Ravinder) said that the helicopter was not real. So, how did you plan to shoot the flying scenes?
Senthil:
Ravi did a great job with the helicopter. It's a very important scene in the film and the effect had to look real. The whole team - particularly the stunts master, visual effects supervisor, director, and me - did careful planning of every small detail - how the air flows, how the body falls,
etc. Most of the sequence was shot against blue mat. It was tough, as we shot it outdoors with constantly changing light conditions. I then shot the background plates required from a real helicopter at different heights, with the director, and everything was later put together by the CGI team, who did a fabulous job. It was a complete team effort indeed.
Sri: The Colosseum-like setting was really huge! How did you manage to shoot it?
Senthil:
Shooting the arena was one the fabulous experience in the film, as it was a perfect combination of the art department, camerawork, and computer graphics. Only a part of the stadium was erected as a set. We shot the required sequence with blue mat and later extended it through visual effects. We created the kingdom of Udaighad as CGI but developing it was a tedious process. We don’t have the culture of arena fights in Indian history, as it belongs to Roman culture. Conceiving and shooting in the arena set was one of most cumbersome and satisfying experiences really.
Sri: How do you work with costumes and art departments for color coordination of the scene?
Senthil:
Before the shoot, I definitely work with costume designers and the art director. Since I worked with Rajamouli for most of my films, Rama
gaaru was heading the costume department and we always had healthy fights on color combinations, obviously leading to better screen output ultimately. Her judgment is really good. For example, no one approved of the green and pink dress of Kajal in the climax scene where the protagonist kills a hundred warriors. When we saw it on the screen, she was right - it was looking great on Kajal! ...Ravi and I debuted together with
Aithe..! and so we understand each other's working style and work in harmony.
Sri: Sometimes, the costumes were same color as the background. Would it not be difficult to distinguish?
Senthil:
It is a bit difficult, yes. In
Chatrapathi, we had this song
A vacchi B pai vaale..., in which I wanted to have a monotone feel, which was never done in recent Telugu films and thus tried the same color for background and foreground. The results were amazing. For
Magadheera, in the song
dheera dheera dheera..., we tried it in a small portion of the song, the part that was shot in Dholavira with white salt background, and it was awesome!
