Amitabh Bachchan in Waqt

When it comes to cinematography, FTII alumni still rules?

Yes, I graduated from the Pune school in 1993 and then started working in both Mumbai and Kerala. My first film was in Mumbai with one of my director-batchmates of FTII, Sirendra Singh, starring Kareena Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor, which got shelved midway. I had shot a song composed by A. R. Rahman and written by Gulzar. After that I went back south and did a Malayalam film.

Where did Karan Johar discover you?

Karan was looking for fresh people who had time and were also able. When Renu Saluja was editing my rushes (for the unfinished film) Karan had come inside the room and seen my work. He offered the film and there I was shooting for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai within two years of my passing out of film school.

Did you face any difficulty?

It was very tough. I was not exposed to the Hindi film shooting structure. We shot the college song (Yeh ladki?) in our first schedule and I was really anxious, but let my instincts take over. The toughest schedule for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was, however, the one in Ooty where we shot for around one month with 100 kids. Kids and animals are always the most tough to shoot. And to be on an outdoor schedule with them in the middle of mist and rain was really challenging.

Why did you go back to Kerala despite the massive success of Kuch Kuch??

I left Mumbai because I wasn?t excited about working there. Also I wanted to come back and do some good work in my home state. But once back, I realised that things weren?t good there too. I had to go back to Mumbai and I did films like Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya and Hello Brother.

You again shot to fame with your work in Pinjar?

I was always fascinated by period films. One of the very reasons I came to cinematography was because of my love for period films since my school and college days. Period films have this photographic brilliance that other films cannot have. So when I learnt that I could visually translate Amrita Pritam?s novel, I was very excited.

Rok Sako To Rok Lo must have been a bizarre experience?

(Laughs) Art director Sameer Chanda put me on to Arindam Chaudhuri. He wanted to experiment with the medium of film-making and my job was to guide and help his efforts as much as I could. I couldn?t possibly experiment myself when so much experimentation was being done around me by a new set of people.

Did you watch the original Gujarati play before starting your work on Waqt?

No, I didn?t. Waqt was largely a simple movie with no complication. Director Vipul Shah wanted a clean and rich look for the film. It was my first working opportunity with Amitabh Bachchan. So on the first day of shooting I told him: ?I?m nervous.? He replied: ?I?m nervous too.? Such is the greatness of the man that he still treats every film as a fresher. Akshay and Priyanka, too, were fantastic on the sets with no tension around.

How was it returning to the Karan Johar camp with Kaal?

It was fantastic. We finished the film before time. I wasn?t disappointed that he didn?t ask me to do Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Kal Ho Naa Ho because I wasn?t available then. Kaal, of course, is unlike anything Karan has done before.

Did you actually shoot in the non-permitted areas of the Corbett National Park?

That?s all nonsense. Knowing Dharma Productions and also director Soham for some time now, they do everything very systematically. All the permissions were processed one year prior to the shooting schedules. All the planning was done very meticulously with the script given to the cast and crew seven months before the start. Even BBC shoots where we shot. It?s not that you can?t shoot there but you can?t get down at all places and can?t use the lights and reflectors everywhere. We were in our cars and had our camera on. There was a forest official always with us and he was even recording what we were shooting. If you look at the film, Kaal is all about preserving nature and not destroying it.

You are also doing Rakesh Roshan?s next film Krrish with Hrithik and Priyanka?

It will be a benchmark of sorts with Tony Ching directing the action sequences. He had earlier called the shots for films like The Hero and The House of Flying Daggers. The post-production will be done in Los Angeles. We have shot in Kulu Manali after a 90-day shooting schedule in Singapore. There?s still 150 days of shooting left and the film will only get ready by December.