‘Kantara: Chapter 1’ DOP Arvind S Kashyap: We Shot 80% Of The Film On Real Locations

Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: Chapter 1 is bursting at the seams…with ideas, details and exquisite storytelling. The story of a human-nature conflict, which was at the centre of the hit Kannada sensation Kantara (2022), gets a richer upgrade in the prequel with eye-watering cinematography, music and production design. An upgrade sounds like a natural progression for a film like this, but how does one beat the refreshing authenticity of the Bhoota Kola culture of coastal Karnataka and the sacred daiva worship that the original introduced? Arvind S Kashyap, who was behind the acclaimed frames of Kantara (2022), remembers a pivotal moment before he started filming for the prequel. It was a conversation with Vijay Kiragandur, the founder of Hombale Films. 

“Vijay anna called me to his office and told me, ‘I know things are going to scale up, the script is huge, but don't forget that people loved the frames of Kantara and that's what they'd like to see again,’” Kashyap tells The Hollywood Reporter India. “That formed the guidelines for me to frame everything. So we decided to create similar kinds of visuals but with enhanced experiences.” 

The enhancement in the prequel isn’t just in terms of scale, but in terms of detail. So for a film that has more than 3,000 VFX shots, they still grounded a majority of filming on real location, found lost blueprints in the forests of Kundapura, climbed trees to light up the outdoors, and worked together as a unit to make all of this happen in 18 months.  

“When I started, I'd just pray that someone would give me a camera to shoot with. But now, as I'm shooting a film like Kantara, I almost have access to any camera in the world. After all these years, I've realised, the camera hardly matters. What matters is the vision,” says Kashyap, noting that it’s about time technicians in Kannada cinema got their due. “After KGF, there has been a lot of attention on Kannada technicians, and I do feel we're making good use of it. I strongly believe that in the coming years, Kannada DOPs are going to go places and be all over the country, shooting good stuff.”

Excerpts from an interview:

So... how did it all begin?

I was called to Mangalore around 2.5 years ago, where we were told that they had a concrete script for the prequel to start with. And following the narration, Rishab [Shetty] pulled me aside and told me, "This is going to be bigger than anything we've done before, and I need you to be with me throughout the filming as a supporting shoulder." This is when we decided we all needed to move and be together. We moved to Kundapura and set up offices for writing, direction, and other purposes. All of us shifted there. 

We had extensive pre-production and planning done there. That's the reason we could finish a movie of this scale in such a short time. From the start of the shoot to release, it's only taken 18 months. The movie has close to 3,000 VFX shots. Any movie of this scale usually has one year after completion of the shoot to release. We finished shooting last month and were able to release it this month. This is because of the planning. 

How did the extensive planning help with cinematography? 

First of all, we decided to shoot the majority of the film in real, live locations. We didn't want to rely on VFX for everything except animals and extensions. If we could capture something on camera, we did it on camera. Almost 70-80 per cent of our footage was shot live.

We realised we can't show the same kind of forest shown in Kantara. This had to be more pristine, huge, and scary. We set off for an extensive recce to get to know different types of forests and topography, and locked in on the forest you see in the film. 

At an early stage, we decided that in parallel to shooting, we had to hand over the files to the VFX department. That's the only way we could finish this on time. We'd finish a schedule, take a five-day break, take three days for editing and two days for VFX briefing, hand over all the files and get back to shoot. By the time we'd begin shooting for the next schedule, we would have a draft of the VFX for the previous schedule. That's how we could make corrections and meet deadlines. 

The forest is at the centre of 'Kantara: Chapter 1'. What was it like to film it on location?

The forests we shot in Kantara were accessible by road. But here, it took us 45 minutes to get there on foot, and getting so many people on location was a nightmare. The production supported us strongly. The line and executive producers figured out how to get us there quickly. Since most of them were private lands, they had pathways that were once there, but are now all gone. They looked at blueprints to find out the routes and would take 3-4 days to find out the best way to get there. 

We had never shot such a deep forest before. For the last film, we put a 100-foot crate with a light on top of it and used a moonbox. None of those things was possible here. I was reading about the hunting machans that people build on trees, and used that for this film. We built those platforms all around the locations and used the lights. We went back to the basics. That's how the lighting in the film looks natural because it's coming in from all directions like normal moonlight would. We don't have any sharp rays anywhere.

We were also able to hang tiny lights in the forest. On set, we would have three tree-climbing experts with us to climb up and tie the ropes [for light]. 

When you're working on a prequel to a film that became such an organic sensation in terms of both reach and subject, what was running through your head in terms of the pressure? Is blind faith what it takes to get something like this done?

I was anxious and nervous throughout the shoot. But before we started, our producer Vijay anna [Vijay Kiragandur of Hombale Films] called me to his office and told me, "I know things are going to scale up, the script is huge, but don't forget that people loved the frames of Kantara and that's what they'd like to see again."  That formed the guidelines for me to frame everything. So we decided to create a similar kind of visuals but with enhanced experiences. 

Kantara not only moved a lot of audiences with its climax, but also introduced a section of them to Bhoota kola and daiva nartakas. How do you retain freshness with a prequel?

That's the reason we never showed people what we were shooting. Almost until a month before release, nobody knew what the world was. We wanted people to seek the shock element of seeing a completely new world. 

When it comes to Daiva, we knew how impactful it was going to be because we saw the performances on set. Although it was familiar, this had a lot more energy and power in it. Even in terms of the camera, it was way more dynamic compared to last time. Last time, we kept the camera a little steady for the audience to soak it all in. But now that they're used to what's going to come on screen, I had a lot of freedom to move the camera around the way I wanted. 

How was it shooting the Guliga sequences?

We couldn't prolong it as we couldn't have many retakes. His [Rishab's] energy comes in pulses, and I cannot ask him to do one more take of something he did earlier. We had to make sure that we captured it when he was at his best. This required a lot of planning to make sure we got it right, almost the first time. We had two cameras positioned in a way that we'd get one take no matter what. The Guliga sequences are pressure for everyone because we all feel the energy. The kind of feelings people are feeling in the theatre right now were felt on set, too. To forget all that and think about technical things requires extra attention. It is very easy to get carried away. 

In a film that is so busy, how do you use cinematography to express ideas that dialogue cannot?

There are a lot of visual metaphors in the movie. We've tried to keep the palace and kingdom parts symmetrical and calm, and the tribal sequences are chaotic. We made the palace scenes look cramped to show they were having something more than they could handle. As the story progresses, we have tried to keep a lot of emptiness in the palace as well. 

But we all knew how busy the movie was going to be. We knew the information needed multiple viewings. When you watch the first half for the second time, it makes so much more sense. A lot of people are saying they liked their second viewing much better. We had planned and accounted for this. 

Can you speak to us about the tiger? The Huli daiva sequences had audiences in almost a trance with their beauty. 

In terms of technicality, I shot and treated the tiger like I would any other person. We carried all the imperfections we saw during the shoot to post (production) as well. Usually, when it's a CG animal, people try to make it look nice and beautiful. We didn't want that. We wanted to mimic the lighting of the situation exactly as it was. If a tiger had a scar or a black spot, we retained it. Tigers go all over the forest and usually have mud and grime on their skin. We made sure all that was carried over to the film. 

The tiger that you see now is probably the 60th or 70th version of it. We had lots of corrections. Every shot was worked on more than 20-30 times. 

What were the corrections like?

Something like the hind leg lifting an inch extra, the right eyebrow moving unnaturally, the left ear needs to twitch at this point, the tiger is not looking in the right direction, and so on. We tried to make it look as real as possible. It was an extremely collaborative effort. 

Your friendship with Rishab Shetty goes back a long way. Did you ever reflect on the success of the film together?

There were times we'd discuss how we don't think we can stick to the deadline. There were constant discussions as to whether the film is too extreme and if people will accept this. In terms of the world and the story, it was different from things people were used to seeing. We would reassure ourselves. Now, to see the response from audiences, all our conversations are something fun to think about. 

Working with him is like a family business. We know the kind of pressure both of us have, and I know the support he needs from all of us. Our core team has writers, Anirudh, Guru and Pragathi (Shetty), our costume designer. We are a unit and always help each other out. That is the team we have formed after so many movies. 

We [Rishab and he] were together until last night in the studio correcting some things for other versions and all that. Today is the only day we've been separated, and all these days we've been together. I'm meeting him in a few hours now. Maybe then I'll talk to him and reflect on things (smiles).