Cinematographer Ram Prasad is known for his attention to detail, his eagerness to question, learn and willingness to take risks. His father Madhav Rao, a senior make up man, who worked for actor Krishna for four and a half decades, gifted him a camera when he was 19, but never took him to the sets. He says, “I always had an artistic bent of mind and I would do pencil sketches. Though I wanted to be an architect, I ended up doing cinematography. Every day I learnt something new and any work small or big undertaken turned in to a success. That confidence and positivity helped me stay updated with regards to camera and films. I moved from Chennai in 1992 and now I am a total Hyderabadi. I never remember going to a film shoot but when I started, cinema became a whole big subject for me to study.”
Ram Prasad is known to the industry folks as an expert in picturising action scenes; he can elevate such scenes to a different level. Just as P. C Sreeram focuses on nice visuals and smooth sequences, Ram Prasad focuses on light and shade and the audience can recognise his work on screen. He says, “From the last one and half decades I have been doing so many action films, I got a grip on them but I am also good at working in films that have artistic strokes. I automatically get a framing sense and I have a fair idea of how to capture a mission.”
He adds, “If I work with debutant directors, I am of help to them and they exploit me well but it helps me too. I have noticed that every debutant has a unique point or an asset. Camera is not an object for me, it is an integral part of me. Whenever I see a new camera I don’t rest till I study it completely, until I know whatever I imagined turns out to be true. In action scenes we cannot ask the actor to repeat it; it is not about turning the camera wherever he goes. We can enjoy the cinema only when we go smoothly without a jerk, synching is important otherwise it will appear as another cut and paste job.”
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He says out of the all crew members on the set, a cinematographer needs to have a lot of patience. Speaking of life, he says he had apprehensions if he could survive here but resolved that if he goes about his job with perfection there would be a great future in store for him and everything else will fall in line. That is exactly what had happened, and today Ram Prasad is a happy man.