Santosh Sivan: I had fun filming Anjaan

One of the major releases this week is Lingusamy’s Anjaan with Suriya and Samantha in the lead.

It is shot by renowned cinematographer Santosh Sivan.

In this exclusive interview, Santosh Sivan talks briefly about the shooting of Anjaan.

The kind of films you work on as a cinematographer, are totally different from the kind of films you direct.

I started my career as director of photography when I was quite young. I did not go thorough an internship. I never really had a chance to make choices.

But the films I photographed always taught me something new. So I believe that with every film you learn something, and often you learn to see different perspectives of different directors.

An M F Hussain film may be strong on visual language, unlike a big entertainer. So whether it is feature films, or documentaries or commercials, one thing that is common is that you learn and enjoy.

Shifting between various kinds of films makes it challenging and the mind tends not get into a routine. So, I often shift from one to another. 

Did you enjoy shooting commercial entertainers such as Thuppakki, Anjaan, etc?

I had a lot of fun filming Anjaan! My films have two things in common -- passion and hard work.  

And of course, it is fun to watch extremely talented actors like Suriya, Manoj Bajpayee, pitched against each other. Also Samantha, whose acting is effortless.

The songs too are real fun to film. I really like filming dressed up songs.

In Anjaan I managed to polish my Tamil with a totally Tamil-speaking crew. Lingusamy is passionate about spouting spontaneous Tamil three-liners and keeping the proceedings lively. 

The Red Dragon digital camera you used to shoot Anjaan was the first time in the world that the camera was used and it was written about a lot. How much did the camera help you tell the story differently?

Cameras and models keep changing, but image capture is always to do with sensibilities and the visual culture you are brought up in.

So the camera is never important, but newer models may give you more possibilities.

The film was mostly shot in Mumbai, which is the backdrop of many films. Did you look at the city from a different angle?

Yes. Mumbai is always shown as a rotten apple, the slums and the chaos, and especially so in gangster films.

In Anjaan the script explores a modern life, and so it’s the other side of the rotten apple - a world of colours and lights.