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Through The Lens | Ravi K. Chandran on Working with Shah Rukh Khan in 'Paheli'
The award-winning cinematographer celebrates 20 years of 'Paheli' (2005).
When Black (2005) was about to be released, we started working on Paheli (2005). And it was released that same year. Shah Rukh [Khan] had called me and asked if I would take on this film. I said yes, but it was a period film set in Rajasthan, and he didn’t want to shoot there. [Similarly], Mr. [Amitabh] Bachchan also had two days of shooting but couldn’t travel to Rajasthan either. So, we had to create a set with sand dunes at Film City’s helipad in Mumbai.
We shot only the staple sequence in Rajasthan for two to three days and brought back some sand, because it’s quite different. We even got a few camels and had to put big fans to create the sand waves on those dunes. People can’t believe that we didn’t shoot in Rajasthan, but even [director] Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995) was not shot in Mumbai, or Casablanca (1942) in Casablanca.
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The Making of
I always say people may forget the film, but they’ll remember the songs because they keep hearing them again and again. So whenever we shoot song sequences, I get worried because it’s going to live forever. Each film has a different look, so you have to work with the choreographer to get the mood of the film into your visuals. Here, for “Laaga Re Jal Laaga”, Farah Khan wanted a lot of camera moments. She is the only choreographer I’ve worked with who comes with a proper game plan — that is, if the song needs only 40 shots, she will only take that many. A lot of choreographers just ask the steady camera to go forward and back, cut it together and put out the song, but not her. All the old-school people, who started their career with actual film footage, and not in the digital age, don’t take unwanted shots and are conscious about time and frame. They’ll take the time to compose the song instead.
Back in the day, a good song could make people go to the theatre, and today, even a great song doesn’t help if the film is not good; you can watch it on YouTube beforehand, so there’s no excitement left.
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India’s Entry for the Oscars
[Director] Amol Palekar is a national award-winning director and his collaboration with Shah Rukh was quite unique. You know, nobody expected them to do a film together. Also, I think this is the only period film I’ve ever done. Paheli was India’s entry for the Oscars that year, and I got a lot of good reviews for its cinematography. In fact, that was the only year when I was nominated for many awards — including national awards — for two films together. I won them all for Black but my cinematographer friends, like Anil Mehta, said they liked Paheli more.
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