The trailer and posters of director Raaj Vijay's Green suggest a forest that watches, whispers, and becomes a mirror to the protagonist’s mind. The psychological thriller unfolds as a haunting journey through isolation and delusion, where shadows have meaning and silence feels sentient. Leading the visual journey through this eerie world is cinematographer K Madhusudhan, who is also the VFX artist who gave fear a face in this film.
Ahead of the film’s release on October 23, Madhusudhan traces the journey by saying, “I was actually pursuing my MBA, but cinematography was always my calling. My real education began on film sets, not in classrooms.”
He started his career by assisting noted cinematographers in Hindi and Tamil films, absorbing the craft through observation and persistence. “That’s where I learned the language of light. After two years, I got my first independent project, a Malaysian film titled Bungalow No. 99 (2018). Then came a Marathi project and the Kannada indie, Maduve Oota, which did well at festivals. From there, there was no looking back,” says Madhusudhan.
When director Raaj Vijay was looking for someone who could merge visual realism with illusion, a mutual friend introduced him to Madhusudhan, and Green was born. There are very few cinematographers who understand VFX like Madhusudhan does. “Before the pandemic, I ran a VFX studio,” he explains. “When Covid hit, we had to close it down. But the team that worked with me then came back for Green. I have handled VFX for five films, but this was different. Here, the camera and computer worked in harmony.”
Madhusudhan believes modern cinematography cannot exist without digital craftsmanship. “Today, without VFX, there is no composition,” he says. “Technology keeps evolving every ten days. So when a cinematographer understands VFX, he frames it with foresight. It is no longer about adding effects; it is about blending them seamlessly into emotion.”
Sharing his experience working for Green, Madhusudhan says that shooting fear, frame by frame, was both a challenge and a reward. “Budgets are tighter now, but cameras are smarter. You can achieve grandeur even with LED lights and precision planning. For the scale Raaj Vijay envisioned, Green could have been a ₹20 crore film. But we reimagined that grandeur within our limits, and technology became our biggest ally.”
Madhusudhan shares that he treated the forest as a state of mind, approaching Green with emotion rather than technical showmanship. “I didn’t want to overload the film with effects. It is a psychological thriller, but it is deeply human, too. The camera had to feel what the protagonist felt. Every movement, every flicker of light, was emotional, without which, even the best cinematography and VFX would become meaningless."
Green was initially conceived for OTT, but the team changed course after seeing the final cut. “Once we saw how immersive it looked on screen, we knew it had to be a theatrical experience,” Madhusudhan shares. “We didn’t want the audience to just watch Green; we wanted them to feel it, to step into its forest and question what is real. To me, it is an experience in illusion, like painting fear with light."
