Three films, three different genres for Ivan Thandiran cinematographer

Fresh from the success of Uru, cinematographer Prasanna S Kumar is looking forward to the reception to Ivan Thandiran (which re-released yesterday), "where the treatment has been in total contrast to the dark offering of Uru." In a candid chat, Prasanna says he counts himself lucky to get exposure to various genres in his first three films. 

"My debut Pichaikaran was a realistic film where the camera has to be concealed in a bag, with much of the shoot happening at traffic signals," he says.

In Uru, he had a challenge of a different kind, with a horror script and the shoot confined to Kodaikanal in December, where the temperature was four degree celsius. To add to the difficulty, the whole movie was shot at night as well. "One shot which stands out in memory is a chase sequence in a forest. The whole unit was against shooting in the night, due to the risk involved as Dhanshika had to do a fair bit of running with the villain close on her heels. But there was no way around it since daylighting would not have worked for the scene. So we went ahead with it," he recounts. Though the film has received rave reviews, which he is happy about, he says he his one regret is that the movie was not really a box-office hit.

On his latest, Prasanna says it was a jolly good ride. On the 30-fun filled days of the shoot in the city for Ivan Thandiran, he says, "The lead pair Gautham Karthik and Shraddha Srinath exuded a lot of energy and I think some of  that energy rubbed off on me, too." He tells us he was to give the scenes a lot of colour in the background. "I played with the interiors locations, and especially enjoyed shooting a rain sequence where the camera rolls all over the place," he adds.

With three movies lined up for release in Tamil and one in Malayalam, Prasanna is not short on numbers, or in confidence. "I have crossed stage one, and am in a position to pick and choose now. I foresee an amazing journey ahead," he concludes.