Three films, three genres

Fresh from the success of Uru, cinematographer Prasanna S Kumar is looking forward to the reception to Ivan Thandiran (which re-released yesterday), in which he has “provided a totally different treatment when compared to the darkness of Uru.” Prasanna says he counts himself lucky to have received exposure to a variety of genres so early in his career.

“My debut Pichaikaran was a realistic film where the camera sometimes needed to be concealed in a bag, as much of the shoot was 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 is the chase sequence in the 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, as day lighting would not have worked for the scene. So we went ahead,” he recounts. Though the film received positive reviews, which he is happy about, he says his one regret is that the movie was not really a box-office success.

And now with the re-release of his third film, Prasanna remembers the making experience as a “a jolly good ride.” On the 30 days he spent shooting Ivan Thandiran, he says, “The lead pair Gautham Karthik and Shraddha Srinath exuded a lot of energy and I think some of that rubbed of on me too.” He tells us he has tried to lend a lot of colour to each shot. “I particularly enjoyed shooting one rain sequence,” he adds.
With three more films lined up for release in Tamil and one in Malayalam, Prasanna is not short of projects, numbers, or confidence. “I have crossed the first stage, and now, I am in a position to pick and choose,” he smiles.