Venkat C Dileep does one film every year, but he is happy not rushing. The spadework he does and the gratification he derives for that one film is immeasurable, he says. This cinematographer chooses a film based on the banner, the story and the director — in that order. One might have a good story but to take it to the audience, we need a right producer. Luckily for him, all the producers he worked with had the credibility to push the films to a success, be it Oohalu Gusagusalade, Jyo Achyutananda, Nene Raju Nene Mantri and now Amar Akbar Anthony . “It is also necessary for a cinematographer to understand the potential of the film; at times we have freedom and certain times limitations. Working within the latter is challenging. We can’t choose to shoot with ₹100 crore. Within ₹25 crore budget, how I show the richness of 50 or 75 crore is what matters.”
Most of Amar Akbar Anthony was shot in the USA. He narrates the run and gun approach used to shoot in the shoot-friendly locations. “If we have an 11-member crew, we can just go with two battle lights, two light men and cameramen, shoot a couple of tripod shots and wind up in two to three hours. If the scene is lengthy, we have to choose a location and apply for permits and shoot in a staged way. Otherwise we should shoot in the crowd and make it look natural in the available light with a gimbal to get steady shots. We also shot in places where permissions are not easy but we got away with the run and gun crew. We weren’t causing any disturbance to the public. The background added value to the scene and we shot about 70% of the film.”
Since Venkat had studied in the US, he knew the locations and explored them within a stipulated time and identified the government, public and private locations, working with a skeleton crew.
Ileana and Ravi Teja in the film
He did a recce for three weeks and wrapped up the shoot in 72 to 75 days where it would otherwise have taken 90 days. The director and the DoP having clarity helped. He describes the film as a revenge drama with tinge of romance. The lead pair (Ravi Teja and Ileana) are childhood sweethearts; they separate and reunite when they become adults. In this process of reuniting, how the hero takes revenge forms the story.
AAA was shot in two schedules, and both were in extreme temperature zones. One schedule was shot in freezing rain in Detroit and New York. The other schedule took place in New York during summer. The challenge for Venkat was to shoot within the available light with a small crew. What was the most interesting part of the shoot? “We shot in Jennifer Lopez’s old mansion for a childhood episode. One of our producer’s friend had bought it; it is a $50 million property across 12 acres. We shot for two days in the snow, the rest of the days we used snow machines. The snow we see in Hollywood films is mostly fake snow. The technicians create a natural effect, and we worked on those scenes for 10 days. The story unfolds in USA, so we used European colours — more greys, white, black and muted shades.”
Comparing scripts here with those of Hollywood, the DoP says, “In Hollywood, once the script is done, they send it to script doctors and write huge drafts. They work on seven to eight drafts before going to the sets. These script consultants send the script to an unknown person too for a third opinion. Constructive criticism is welcomed. Here there is fear of leakage, existence of doubts, and egos.”
He adds, “Our judgement can go wrong because we are so involved in it. We love what we write and tend to overlook the limitations.”
Finally, Venkat is all praise for the producers for allowing two trips to the USA. Not everyone agrees to shoot twice, he says.
