KK Senthil Kumar is largely known for helming massive productions like Arundhati, RRR, and the Baahubali franchise. However, his next project is a simple family drama titled Junior, which marks the debut for Kireeti Reddy and also stars Genelia D'Souza and Sree Leela. Talking about why he agreed to do Junior, Senthil Kumar stated, “This was a relaxing project for me, after any big-budgeted, VFX heavy films. Also, I really liked the core emotion of it — not enough people explore this genre these days, these emotionally family dramas.”
The renowned cinematographer further spoke about the misconceptions about visual granduer and it’s place in mainstream storytelling. He added, “You can’t shoot every film with granduer. If you try to bring grandness in emotional films, it’s the wrong method of storytelling. If a story needs high emotions and intense closes, we go for it.”
When asked which recent film impressed him the most in recent times in terms of visual aesthetics, Senthil was quick to mention Prashanth Neel’s KGF franchise. He added, “When we do commercial films, everyone wants clean and bright visuals. It’s a big challenge to go for the dark and deep palette. I don’t know whose idea was that — to go for dark visual frames — but it really impressed me.” Further talking about why the Prashanth Neel directorial left such an imprint on him, Senthil noted, “Usually, even if the DOP wants to do it, the director or the production will have a lot of opinions about it. So to see someone do that in commercial cinema was great to see.”
KK Senthil Kumar and SS Rajamouli have worked on some of the most iconic films of their career like RRR and Baahubali among others. So naturally it was a surprise for most film-goers to see Senthil’s name missing in the credits list of SSMB29, the much-anticipated collaboration between Mahesh Babu and Rajamouli. Senthil is quick to clear the air, saying, “It’s a mutual agreed decision. He wanted to try something else. These phases are part of the journey. Also, this is not the first time — I hadn’t done Maryada Ramanna and Vikramarkudu either. So there’s nothing to be shocked about.”
KK Senthil Kumar’s projects include Swayambhu, the Nikhil Siddhartha starrer.
