They Call Him OG, director Sujeeth’s Telugu action drama led by Pawan Kalyan, is holding fort in theatres in its second week, and its director of photography Ravi K Chandran is pleased with the reception to the film and his work. His cinematography, along with AS Prakash’s production design, Darshan Jalan and Neelanchal Kumar Ghosh’s costume design, gave OG a retro-themed aesthetic.
Currently in Hyderabad filming director Sudha Kongara and actor Sivakarthikeyan’s Tamil film Parasakthi, Ravi K Chandran is yet to experience the OG frenzy in theatres. When he settles down for an interview, he discloses that he watched the film along with actors Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan at a private screening.
However, he got a taste of the fan frenzy during the pre-release event. “I think Pawan Kalyan is the first biggest commercial superstar I have worked with,” he says. His career spanning nearly four decades has memorable films such as Viraasat, Black, Dil Chahta Hai, Ghajini, Fanaa, My Name is Khan, Rab de Bana di Jodi, Paheli and four Mani Ratnam films, including the recent Kamal Haasan-starrer Thug Life. Gauging my bewildered response, the cinematographer adds, “The mania that commercial superstars in the South such as Rajinikanth, Vijay, or Pawan Kalyan generate is different from the stars of Hindi cinema. Pawan Kalyan’s political presence further amplifies the frenzy.”
Chandran first collaborated with Pawan Kalyan for Bheemla Nayak, the Telugu adaptation of the Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum. Kalyan’s introduction shot, as he emerges from a darkly-lit zone, elicited cheers in the theatres. The retro theme of OG gave Chandran further scope to experiment. “Initially some were sceptical if the darker palette would appeal to the audiences. Sujeeth and I were confident. Not just visually, you will not find Kalyan’s signature mannerisms here.”
References from the 1980s
Since the story is set in the Bombay of the 1990s, with flashbacks taking the narrative further back at regular intervals, Chandran and Sujeeth decided on a 1980s-inspired retro look for the film. Kalyan sports shirts with large collars, and high waist trousers. The retro quotient is pronounced in the styling of characters played by Emraan Hashmi and others.
Ravi K Chandran with director Sujeeth
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
OG was a three-year journey that commenced in August 2022. “I liked Sujeeth’s vision,” says Chandran, who strives to make his films stand the test of time. “The effort is always to try and make each film memorable. Sujeeth’s previous film Saaho was also visually good (by R Madhi). So when he approached me, I wanted to make it worthwhile.”
When Chandran teamed up with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Black, he leveraged the story’s potential to move away from the colourful, opulent palette of Bhansali’s films such as Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas. When he first collaborated with Mani Ratnam for Kannathil Muthamittal, he was conscious that the director had earlier worked with legendary cinematographers such as PC Sreeram and Santhosh Sivan. Chandran was determined to do something new.
He reminisces, “For Black, we filmed the scene in which Rani Mukherji goes to the church on the first day. There was no snow. The production team worked late into the night , and all of us reached the location at 3am. We began filming as the first rays of the sun came out. For the first 13 days, we filmed at dawn and at sunset during the magic hour. Bhansali joked that I drew him out of indoor sets and made him embrace a Mani Ratnam aesthetic.”
Signature shots
For OG, some of the signature shots were filmed in the first few days. “Pawan Kalyan emerging from smoke and the upside down shot near the Gateway of India were among the first to be filmed. Seeing the results, we knew we were on the right track,” says Chandran.
He mentions how Pawan Kalyan was game to experiment. “He arrived before 5am, as requested, and we filmed. Similarly, for the sequence in which he teaches Aikido to the kids, initially he had allotted half a day. On location, he was impressed by the frame that he saw through the camera, and stayed on for three days in Panchgani. He is intuitive, understands the play of light and acts accordingly.”
The ‘Suvvi Suvvi’ song was shot in the morning hours, and the crew waited a day for the clouds to clear up. “We could have used lights to mimic the sunrise hour or done something in post production, but I wanted to use natural light,” says Chandran.
Priyanka Arul Mohan and Ravi K Chandran
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The initial shoot involved real locations, before the crew moved to the sets. The lour palette was kept earthy to maintain uniformity.
Since the film looked darker than other Pawan Kalyan films, Chandran was keen to gauge the response from Gen Z audiences. After the film’s release, when Kalyan’s son Akira called to thank Chandran, he knew they had made the right call.
Arthouse meets mainstream
Chandran’s artistic visuals in a massy Pawan Kalyan film is not something one would have expected a few years ago. The cinematographer points out how unexpected collaborations have spelt magic in Hollywood. Citing the example of Skyfall, he says, “That was the only Bond film in 50 years to get an Academy Award nomination for cinematography. When an arthouse cinematographer like Roger Deakins and director Sam Mendes teamed up, it resulted in stunning visuals. Skyfall also became the highest grosser among Bond films at the time.”
Reverting to discuss OG, Chandran says as the filming was paused intermittently owing to Pawan Kalyan’s political career, he also took up Thug Life, Mani Ratnam’s gangster film, but was conscious to make both films look different. For a brief period when his dates overlapped with his other projects or when he faced a health setback, cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa stepped in.
Having begun his career with the 1991 Malayalam film Kilukkampetti, after spending a few years as assistant cinematographer, Chandran says the Malayalam film industry, which works with lower budgets, encourages experiments. He notes how stalwarts like PC Sreeram also began with Malayalam cinema, and adds, “My son (Santhana Krishnan) began in Malayalam before taking up Hindi films like Baaghi 2, Kabir Singh, Baaghi 3 and Param Sundari.”
Science-backed tips
At 60, Chandran credits the success of his work to striving to stay abreast with technology. In the pre-digital era, shooting on film called for discipline, since one could not afford the margin of error. Now, as crews use AI for pre-visualisation, he says it’s important to learn the science: “I am always taking up some online course, to know what mistakes we are committing unknowingly. For example, I learnt how to avoid burnout when sunlight streams through a large glass panel. Instead of using white curtain, the trick is to use a shade of grey that will appear white when captured on a digital camera. Film cameras, on the contrary, would retain the original colour.”
Chandran offers another science-backed tip: “Using slightly harsh light for light-eyed actors like Hrithik Roshan or Aishwarya Rai will make them squint and capture the true eye colour. If softer light is used, their pupils will dilate and the black will dominate the light eye colour.”
For OG, he conducted test shoots for some portions. Consider the action episode filmed from top angle, where the brutality is evident through the streaks of blood splashed on the gunny sac-like cover. “We did a test shoot with a stunt double, made corrections and then filmed with Pawan Kalyan. The brown cover, rather than white, helped avoid a gory look. In several sequences, fire was an element. Editor Navin Nooli did a brilliant job in making the pre-interval sequences appear cohesive, as fire rages on in Nashik, and at the Mumbai port.”
Occasional use of red tones were to concur with the Japanese flag shown in the initial portions. The metaphorical Yin and Yang, with a spot of darkness offsetting lighter tones, and white occasionally offsetting darker tones, was also a conscious choice.
Chandran reflects, “Mani Ratnam and PC Sreeram revolutionised Indian cinema when they experimented with darker tones. At every step, there have been visionaries. Bharathiraja took Tamil cinema to the rural background, Mani Ratnam changed the visual language when he entered, then Shankar brought in scale and ambition, and eventually Rajamouli gave scale and emotional storytelling a different spin.” Chandran also mentions the noteworthy work done by cinematographers such as Ashok Kumar, Tirru, KV Anand, Jeeva, Ravi Varman, and Manikandan, among others.
Chandran does not work with the same director frequently, to avoid the comfort zone. “I break away from the signature lighting and visual style of a director, and also choose diverse genres. How a film performs at the box office is not in our hands, but I’ve observed how some films grow on the audience with time. Iruvar, Kandukondain Kandukondain, and Kannathil Muthamittal are a few examples. Even Thalapathy and Dil Chahta Hai had decent runs at the box office, but were not blockbusters. But people remember and rewatch these films till date. My effort is to make my films also stand out visually, while not taking the attention away from the storytelling.”
