A film is only a film once it becomes something you can set your eyes on. For that you need a cinematographer. And for a series of unforgettable visuals, you need Santosh Sivan, the recipient of this year’s coveted Pierre Angenieux tribute at Cannes.
Sivan, who started working in 1986, is busier than ever right now. He has begun shooting and directing ‘Zuni’, based on the legend of Habba Khatun, in the snowy reaches of Kashmir. He is also working on Rajkumar Santoshi’s period film Lahore 47, starring Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta, being produced by Aamir Khan; and is about to get started on Riteish Deshmukh’s biopic on Shivaji.
In this chat a day before his filled-to-the-brim masterclass, where Zinta handed him the award, Sivan speaks about the importance of this award, and awards in general, which for him mean a larger recognition not just of his own skills, but of the essential magic that only cinematographers can conjure up. And of shooting on top of trains with superstars, and certain songs going viral. Excerpts :
You have spoken in the past about the importance of awards. What does this award mean to you?
An award, especially one like this which is so prestigious, inspires a lot of people, especially young people who are aspirants. Like I was the first one to break into Bollywood from the South, the first to be invited to the American Society of Cinematography, and now that I’m the first Asian to be awarded this one, it tells people (those who want to work as cinematographers) that they can also look forward to this kind of pathway.
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You are very much a pioneer in the way you began working across film industries, and have both shot and directed films.
I realised very early that the visual language is without barriers, that it can travel around the world. So after starting in Kerala, it was a natural progression to Tamil cinema, Bollywood, Hollywood.
I began directing with children’s films. When I was shooting ‘Raakh’ ( one of Aamir Khan’s first films), Aditya’s ( director Aditya Bhattacharya) sister lost her dog, so I wrote a story around that. And that’s how ‘Halo’ came about, and then I did ‘Malli’.
Then I made ‘The Terrorist’, for which I got a lot of international awards. It was the first Indian film to be accepted in Sundance (film festival). John Malkovich (at the film festival) in Cairo gave it all the awards, and then he took it and distributed it all over US and UK. After that I wanted to do something more mass, so I did ‘Asoka’.
Shah Rukh Khan in a still from Asoka.
Why ‘Asoka’?
In school, we used to laugh at King Asoka, saying he stopped wars. What kind of king stops wars? One of my teachers used to say, one day you will learn that supporting wars is not what heroes do, and that’s the day I got interested in making a film on him.
Do you think it was ahead of its times?
Even today, its songs are viral.
San sanana san with Kareena on that raft? It’s all over the place
Yes..
What was it like working with SRK (who plays the titular role)?
I had worked with him before, shot with him on top of a train (laughs) for ‘Dil Se’. He is an amazing person. He has sent me a lovely recorded message for this occasion, as have Aamir (Khan), Mira (Nair), Shekhar (Kapur).
Speaking of Aamir, I remember the very striking palette of ‘Raakh’, so grey and dark..
When I landed in Bombay, I was mesmerised by the lights. Totally fascinated. But ‘Raakh’, which was one of my first Bollywood films, was very experimental, it had a very small budget and we had to manage within that. I like experimentation so I was game, even now I’m like that.. after that I got a lot of opportunities in Bollywood
We hear so much about Aamir Khan’s perfectionism. Was he a perfectionist even then?
See, Aamir is a very sincere person. He is a stickler, and even then he was a perfectionist. In fact, I’m working with him now, ‘Lahore 47’ is being produced by him. He is also very knowledgeable about the technical side of the business, very curious about which lenses and which cameras to use when.
Even SRK is very much into all this, he’s very keen on VFX, and owns the best digital processing outfit. He’s done everything to help Indian cinema achieve a global standard.
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Even a festival like this (Cannes) supports the industry, sadly in India (film) festivals don’t have this kind of focus.
I enjoyed working with MF Hussain (in ‘Meenaxi’, starring Tabu) too. I got paid one hell of a lot, and he gave me his paintings too. He is very clever, he autographed them so I couldn’t sell them !
Who are the Indian cinematographers that you admire?
Subrato Mitra, Satyajit Ray’s cameraman, V K Murthy who shot Guru Dutt’s films, KK Mahajan was another, Ashok Mehta.. I never worked with them, but learnt so much from them.
What do you think of the younger pool of talent in India?
We have a lot of talent. Our visual arts have a devotional aspect, our sensibility is decorative, which is why we are so good at shooting songs and dances. If you move away and try to emulate Hollywood, you lose that. It’s important to be attached to your roots, culture.
For me cinematography is the soul through which I capture light and shade, it is the rhythm created by compositions and camera movements.
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