NT Rama Rao biopic is the greatest thing to have happened to my career, says cinematographer VS Gnana Shekar

VS Gnana Shekar is a man of few words, although when he begins talking about his work, he reveals quite a lot about the ever-changing field of cinematography and the challenges involved with each project. Apart from films, not many know that Shekar is an avid painter and spends a great deal of time reading about history, astronomy and space research among other things. Perhaps, it was his destiny that he ended up working on films which were steeped in his favourite subjects. In the past couple of years alone, he has worked on historical dramas like Gautamiputra Satakarni, Kanche and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi,  and space drama Antariksham in Telugu and Hindi. However, the project that he is most excited about at the moment is the NTR biopic , which will release in two parts as NTR - Kathanayakudu and NTR - Mahanayakudu.

In the past, Shekar had worked with director Krish on films like Vedam, Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, Kanche, Gautamiputra Satakarni and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. And when Krish got a chance to direct NTR’s biopic, it was a no-brainer that Shekar too was going to be part of this magnum opus. “We have worked together on quite a few films in recent times, and there’s nothing much to discuss because we understand each other so well. So, when he told me that we were going to do NTR’s biopic, I didn’t have to think twice about it,” Shekar says.

[caption id=“attachment_5775111” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Nandamuri Balakrishna in a still from the NTR biopic[/caption]

He was seven years old when he saw NT Rama Rao for the first time, but Shekar struggles to remember where he had seen him or what had happened that day. Like millions of other Telugu movie buffs, he too grew up watching NTR’s films and was well aware of how NTR forayed into politics. However, he never thought that he would be given the task of recreating that journey for the big screen. “I have never done a biopic in my career, so far. And I really admire NT Rama Rao as an actor. He’s like a teacher in the sense that if you want to know anything about Indian mythology, Telugu literature or any historical character, you can simply watch his films. He’s almost like a history book, and history is one of my favourite subjects. That’s something which really excited me when I was asked to come on board. I can’t explain what a high it is to recreate something that you have grown up watching and admiring. Maybe that’s why I would say that this project is one of the greatest things to have happened to my career. For days altogether, I would keep thinking about how films were shot back in those days because I had to recreate some of those iconic moments, and we tried our best to be as authentic as possible. Maybe, there was an invisible force or NTR’s soul which was guiding us throughout the journey.”

The film has Balakrishna, son of NTR, playing his father, apart from the likes of Vidya Balan , Rana Daggubati , Sumanth, Kalyanram, Nithya Menen, Rakul Preet Singh  and Hansika among many other actors. It can be daunting task for anyone to handle so many actors, playing characters of iconic actors and filmmakers, but the cinematographer credits Balakrishna for energising the whole unit every single day. “At times, I would get upset that the light isn’t good enough while shooting outdoors or if some prop isn’t in the frame. However, the moment I would see Balakrishna in one of the avatars as NTR, I would just forget about everything else. His presence and passion for the project was instrumental in making the film possible. Also, if I have to talk about my own craft, Balakrishna knows a lot more about lights, camera angles than me. Sometimes, in the middle of a shot, he would stop mid-way because a cloud above was eclipsing the light (laughs). They are trained that way and I’m sure it’s something that he picked up from his father (NTR). And obviously, no one knows more about NTR’s films and his life more than Balakrishna. It was a beautiful experience to see him bring the character alive on screen,” Gnana Shekar adds.

One of the biggest challenges for both Krish and Shekar was to justify NTR’s larger-than-life persona while recreating the iconic moments of his career. Right from creating the right ambiance to composing a shot, Shekar had to get everything right down to the last detail because there was no margin for error. “Recreating anything is challenging and tough, because people remember how the original version looked like. In the film, you’re going to see NTR both as an actor on screen and also as person off screen. While we tried to be as close to the original style of filmmaking as possible, when it came to magical moments from NTR’s films, I got a lot of freedom to bring in my style when it came to recreating his life off screen. Every character that NTR has played in his acting career is larger than life, and to show that character, you’ve to find the right angle, lens, light. It’s not as simple as it looks. You can’t just place a camera, use four lights and make the image look flat. Back in those days, NTR was so well-versed with cinema that he used to guide technicians including cameramen, editors, directors about how to light a scene or edit something. He knew what sort of light was being projected on him and where it was coming. Did you know that he used to have a different light for his face and another light for the crown? All this added up to his aura. And whatever I do has to live up to the standard,” he confesses.

[caption id=“attachment_5860861” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Nandamuri Balakrishna in a still from the NTR biopic[/caption]

Talking more about visual aesthetics of the film, Shekar says, “You will see a lot of whites, when it comes to costumes, and it’s quite pleasant from a visual sense for a cinematographer or a costume designer when we have to recreate the ‘50s. It looks clean. However, by the time, the story shifts to the late ‘70s and ‘80s, it gets quite tricky from a visual standpoint. It’s tough because this era saw the advent of different fabrics, colours, attires and style. And a mismatch of colours can dramatically alter your frame. We had to be cautious about all these aspects while designing the look of the film. Moreover, the lighting pattern is different when it comes to showcasing NTR’s films compared to his life, simply because films were shot inside the studio, whereas his real life was unfolding in broad light. Also, you’ll see the visual language of the film transition with time as he steps into politics.”

For the past six months, NTR’s biopic is the only thing that has been on Shekar’s mind. Everyday, the team would shoot for nearly 18 hours and come back the next day with renewed energy. “It’s because we knew that we are all part of something that’s bigger than us. We were working on the epic scene from Dana Veera Soora Karna, and I was so much in that moment that I forgot all about what was happening around me. It was almost like being in trance. Any technician hardly get a chance to touch all the genres in their lifetime. If someone asks me, how many genres have I touched, now I can say that I’ve done everything because of this film. And it’s all because there was no genre that NTR himself had not touched in his career spanning almost five decades.”

Last year, Shekar had also worked on Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, along with Krish, before both of them moved on to make NTR’s biopic. The film, starring Kangana Ranaut, narrates the story of Lakshmibai, the queen of Jhansi, who became a symbol of resistance against the British Raj. It was the third period drama that Shekar had worked on, apart from Gautamiputra Satakarni and Kanche, although all three of them were set in different time frames. “I enjoyed the process of creating the grandeur that the story, set in mid-19th century, required. We shot a bit in Jodhpur palace, and I kept imagining how people would lived there centuries ago, how the lighting patterns were at that time. That fascinates me the most every time I go to a place of historical importance. Compared to Gautamiputra Satakarni and Kanche, one of the biggest challenges on Manikarnika was setting the right lighting for Kangana. When you have a woman playing such a powerful role, your visual style should also be different. You can’t put a broad light and also, you can’t use soft lights either to make her look like a doll, but at the same time, she has to appear beautiful and feminine too. Besides, the film has both Indian and British actors, so lighting them accordingly was a big task,” Shekar says.

While he is understandably excited about the films that he worked on, Shekar confesses that he is also a bit worried about how the film is being consumed by the audience. “We shot NTR’s biopic on a standard, 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which is best experienced on a wide screen. However, a lot of screens these days project images on a 1.89:1 aspect ratio, which does not capture everything that was originally shot. So, before we ship the prints, we have to convert our final cut to suit different aspect ratios. In turn, it becomes a problem for cinematographers when it comes to deciding how to compose the shot during the filming process itself. When an image is cropped, your cinematography, composition angles and aesthetics get ruined. I hope people watch films in the biggest and wide screens, at least. That would give you the whole picture,” Shekar signs off.

All images from Twitter.