Action packed realism - Kodak

4 Cover Story 5
Mumbai
scenic beauty, the sea, the sea-beaches
become the backdrop in which the film is
played out. This inherent contrast between
the content of the film and its backdrop has
been exploited to the maximum in the film.
"For the sea beach, sea, sky I used Kodak
Vision3 200T-5213 which brought out the
scenic beauty of Goa very nicely. And against
this backdrop a lot of the action occurs. I had
detailed discussions with director about how
he wants the action to be portrayed. One
good and very important thing about this
movie is that all the action sequences have
been designed by the director himself. He has
been brought up witnessing action sequences
Singham
Photo Credits: Avinash Gupta
designed, as he is the son of the great action
Master Shetty. There is a sequence of car
chase in which one car follows another, in this
I used hand-held camera to capture the action
properly. I was there on another car, holding
the camera to capture the action. As a matter
of fact, there are lots of hand-held shots
throughout the film. We have three main
action sequences all of which are very
dramatic," says Dudley.
When it comes to the shot-taking and the use
of special lenses, Dudley admits, "We have
used wide lenses for the action sequences in
order to make the hero look bold and
dynamic." Regarding the shooting itself,
Dudley continues, "Outdoors we shot in
available light. I like to shoot in the wee hours
of the morning and in the evening. I get the
backlight in these hours and that is why I love
these hours to shoot. There are no saturated
colors in this film. except the song sequences,
I wanted the general look of the film to be
very raw and realistic, and hence I have not
gone for colorful shots except the romantic
sequences."
The Art Director had to coordinate very
closely with Dudley because of the realistic
look of the film. Dudley says, "We were out to
search locations all over Maharashtra and in
Goa. We were using two different locations in
Goa and one in Shivgad."
Photo Credits: Avinash Gupta
The film is a result of total teamwork and
before they went on shoot, all the
departments, sets, costume and so on all
came together to discuss what or how the
shot is going to be shot. Dudley stresses the
wide travel the entire crew and the artists
undertook, the strain it caused all of them to
complete this massive film. "All the members
of the unit including the director and the
artists, worked very, very hard, travelled a lot
to make the film a success."
Technical Details
Film
Director
Producer
Stock
Singham
Rohit Shetty
Reliance Big Pictures
Photo Credits: Avinash Gupta Photo Credits: Avinash Gupta
Photo Credits: Avinash Gupta
Kodak Vision 3 200T-5213,
Kodak Vision 3 500T-5219
Celluloid Celluloid Painter Painter
For DoP Kabir Lal, a good DoP should work without dominating the story telling.
In his experience a proficient director can judge a DoP in one shot. "A film is painting
with celluloid and light," he says. "The light and shade are the tools to express
through a film," according to Lal.
S. S. Lal was a formidable cinematographer in his days with more than 60 movies to his credit.
His son Kabir Lal, started dreaming his future not with his eyes but with the lens of a camera. "I got
my first gift - a Click 3 camera and that changed my life forever," recalls Lal. "It was a manually
operated still camera in 80's and I shot my first picture with that."
Love Express
Committed to excel in the area of cinematography not only with sheer experience but also by
observing the maestros at work, helped Lal evolve a distinctive style, a style untainted by the
parameters of formal education. "To accept new challenges takes you to the newer heights - that's
my belief," he says. "I always keep myself updated learning new processing and lighting methods,
emulsions, exposures and keep reinventing myself in context with the new and upgrading
technologies," adds Lal.
In the world of Hindi cinema, where there is no much difference between one film and the other, Lal
tries to keep his work fresh with an experimental approach for each assignment. "I try to elevate
storytelling to a different dimension: experimenting with new techniques and extraordinary locales,
lush colors and special effects. After a dedicated span of work I always want to see the end result
distinctive," he says.
His body of work is impressive and covers Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali and many Ad
films in Hindi as well. His filmography includes films such as Taal, Kaho Naa Pyar Hai, Sajan, Pardes,
Yadein, The Hero, Apne, Yuvraaj, Yamla Pagla Deewana and many more. He has worked with directors
such as Subhash Ghai, Anil Sharma, Rakesh Roshan, Late Feroz Khan, Satish Kaushik, Sohail Khan
and Sameer Karnik.
"The Indian public is more inclined towards
the basic emotions of life," says Lal. Hence the
theme in most Indian films revolves around
social and cultural values. "Most of the films
our makers design depict the basic
sentiments of a human being like love, sorrow,
happiness, hatred and so on, unlike our
western counterparts where they try a very
different hand in versatile subjects and genres
like fantasy, horror, comedy, drama, war and
so on."
He is currently working on two projects. The
first is Naughty@40 with Jag Mundra starring
Govinda; and the second is Love Express
attempted by a fresh batch of youths from
Subhash Ghai's institution Whistling Woods.
"It has been great to work with the young
enthusiastic film makers, and you need to be