HYDERABAD: Director of cinematography Jayakrishna Gummadi is currently in a happy space. After Andari Bandhuvaiyya , one last heard from him when Pizza (Hindi) released. Now the technician who hails from Vijayawada is back in the news for his superb output in Phobia and is currently shooting in Los Angeles for Kamal Hassan-starrer Sabhash Naidu.
JK as he is fondly called, explains the lull in his career: “I was disillusioned for some time and resolved that instead of trying as a DoP in bad films I’d rather do a second unit DoP where I would have space and respect. I worked with reputed cameramen like Sethu, Rajeev Ravi etc but I was not working on my contacts. I was getting money, creative satisfaction, life was going on but my inability to network and go to people cost me. I didn't like waiting for work like actors and models do at auditions. I relooked at my life in a radical way and approached work in a fundamental manner. I lacked a proactive approach and felt I had to take charge of my craft and what I bring to the table. So I revamped myself and things looked up in 2015.”
Phobia rolled within a month after its director Pawan Kripalani saw Pizza. Speaking about the difference between horror and psychological thrillers, he points out, “Anything happening to you externally is horror; psychological thriller is what’s happening to your identity, insecurities, fears..it’s inside you.” Of the craft of psychological thrillers, he says, “We could narrow down the physicality of the craft in terms of composition and movement; it is only reflecting the state of mind of the character. Do you get bored staying in the same house for 20 years? Yet, the next time you look at the same place, you see it with a fresh perspective. When you zero down on the perspective of the shot, we see only the right places. There are infinite possibilities in a single place. Where you place the camera is important, that narrowing down matters.”
Have lighting techniques in psychological thrillers evolved over years? The technician observes that in Phobia they tried approaching it in a Mumbai kind of space. “Due to budget restrictions, I didn't stay truthful to what I would have liked, but that is where I feel I have made a big leap, not being obsessive of lighting. I have simplified the design to achieve the efficiency of time and shot it in two crores budget in 24 days.” JK says people usually use low level lighting for psychological thrillers as they want to keep the audience guessing. He adds, “If it is lit up you don't feel threatened and one can break the grammar. However, I lit this film more brightly than any other situation.”
JK terms Sabhash Naidu as a miracle as it was his life long dream to work in a film that had Ilayaraja's music. He remembers telling his friends that he would work for free if it is an Ilayaraja film and a Kamal film with the maestro's music can only be a cherry on the cake. The film with a Hollywood crew had Akshara Hassan as one of the assistant directors. “I was shooting in Kerala when I got this offer. The director saw my show reel, it had two short films and one feature film which I did in FTII and three or four days later, I was couriering my passport.”
About the film, he elaborates, Sabash Naidu (Balaram Naidu) is a character from Kamal Hassan's Dasavataram .
They made it as a full length character. Brahmanandam has a full length role, almost equal to that of Kamal Hassan. They are like Laurel and Hardy in the movie. We are shooting in LA for 40 days and then we move to Andhra Pradesh in August.”
Brahmanandam has a full length role, almost equal to that of Kamal Hassan. They are like Laurel and Hardy in the movie.
