Sachin Krishn - The director-cinematographer relationship is one beyond a collaboration

"Rakesh, You mentioned the term ‘collaboration’, in the sense of a cinematographer and director relationship; However, I believe, if you define a cinematographer and director’s relationship as a collaboration, it would amount to severely limiting the reality of their relationship. Because their relationship can go go far beyond being a just a ‘collaboration.’ And in the case of Prakash Jha, I have the privilege of having a relationship far beyond a collaboration.

He arrives on set often with quite a rigid frame of mind, and I have to fit the elements of my art, the craftsmanship and techniques of cinematography, into his mould. Now, fitting yourself into your directors scheme of things without much of your own visual interpretation, and yet delivering successfully, believe me when I say this, is very difficult!"
- Cinematographer Sachin Krishn reflects on his director Prakash Jha, in Directors' Diaries.

Filmmography:
2013 Satyagraha
2013 Inkaar
2012 Chakravyuh
2011 Havai Dada
2011 Aarakshan
2011 Mumbai Cutting
2011 Yeh Saali Zindagi
2010 Raajneeti
2010 Rita.
2009 Tera Kya Hoga Johnny
2008 Sorry Bhai!
2007 Dus Kahaniyaan (Puranmaashi)
2007 Khoya Khoya Chand
2007 Just Married
2007 Raakh
2006 Bas Ek Pal
2005 The Blue Umbrella
2004 Vaastu Shastra

- Vishal Bhardwaj.‘I think I like to raise questions in my viewer’s mind through my stories. I want them to question me, themselves, society, the state, whatever the film’s subject is.’

‘I think I like to raise questions in my viewer’s mind through my stories. I want them to question me, themselves, society, 
the state, whatever the film’s subject is.’ - Vishal Bhardwaj.

SNEAK PEEK
Born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh; lived in Najibabad until he was in fifth standard; spent a large part of his childhood in Meerut; was a cricketer but gave it up when he realized it’s too expensive when his family’s financial circumstances changed overnight due to his father’s untimely death; did his college education in New Delhi; recorded his first song as music composer for Veham, sung by Asha-ji, in1984; composed music for the TV series The Jungle Book in 1989; first film as director was Makdee (2002).

From his first film as music composer (Veham) to his first film as a director, it took him eighteen years.

FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Makdee (2002), Maqbool (2003), The Blue Umbrella (2005), Omkara (2006), Kaminey (2009), 7 Khoon Maaf (2011), Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013), Haider (2014)

Hard Road Ahead!

Hard Road Ahead!
In a world of instant coffee, the myth of instant success needs to be busted, I hope an aspiring filmmaker, and even those not in films, realizes the number of years it has taken these directors to arrive at the threshold of their first film. It's not an easy ride.

Anurag Basu
From his first job in films as an 'extra' actor (Dalaal 1993) to his first film as director, it was a journey of nearly eleven years.

Ashutosh Gowariker
From his first film as an actor (Holi 1983) to his first film as director, it was a journey of ten years.

Farah Khan
From her first job as an assistant director (TV series, Malgudi Days 1987) to her first film as director, it was a journey of seventeen years.

Govind Nihalani
From his first job as an intern as an assistant cameraman (Ziddi 1962) to his first film as director, was a journey of twenty years.

Imtiaz Ali
From his first job as a production assistant with Zee TV in 1994 to his first film as director, it was a journey of eleven to twelve years.

Mahesh Bhatt
From his first job in films as an assistant director (Do Raaste 1969) to his first film as director, it was a journey of five years.

Prakash Jha
From his first film as an assistant director (Dharma 1973) to his first film as director, it was a journey of ten years.

Santosh Sivan
From his first film as a cinematographer (Nidhiyude Katha 1986) to his first film as director, it was a journey of ten years.

Subhash Ghai
From his graduation as an actor from FTII- Pune to his first film as director, it was a journey of nine years.

Tigmanshu Dhulia
From his first job as an assistant art director (Sardar 1993) to his first film as director, it was a journey of fourteen years.

Vishal Bhardwaj
From his first film as a music composer (Veham 1984) to his first film as a director, it was a journey of eighteen years.

Zoya Akhtar
From her first job as writer with The Script Shop to her first film as a director, it was a journey of sixteen years.

Thank you Bobby Nagi Jatinder Singh Nagi for sending me this profound image, it reflects an essence of our book - Directors' Diaries - The Road to Their First Film.

DNA India - Unlike actors, directors rarely get a platform to speak about their lives and work.

Unlike actors, directors rarely get a platform to talk about their work.

Rakesh Anand Bakshi's Director's Diaries: The Road To Their First Film corrects that anomaly and gives a sneak peek into their lives and craft, says Amrita Madhukalya.

Did you know that Anurag Basu urged Priyanka Chopra to hurl her choicest abuses at him during the filming of Barfi just so that he could break the ice with the actor? Or that Farah Khan's was an assistant director with Shankar Nag in Malgudi Days? These and more such trivia is what make-up Rakesh Anand Bakshi's Director's Diaries: The Road To Their First Film, collection of conversations with director about their craft.

Bakshi, a screenwriter, and bicycle enthusiast, says he hit upon the idea, because in India unlike the West, directors do not have a platform to talk about their work. The book, consisting of interactions with various directors, is sneak into their lives; a look at how they arrived at the director's seat. Some struggled through years of hard work, others fiddled with other odd jobs for a decade to realise their potential. Almost all were taken in by the mystique of the world behind the camera.

Bakshi, son of the legendary lyricist Anand Bakshi, could not have chosen a more diverse list of directors; there's Anurag Basu, Farah Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Imtiaz Ali, Vishal Bhardwaj, Santosh Sivan, Prakash Jha and Mahesh Bhatt, to name a few. What tumbles out, mostly, are crucial mundane details that reflect in the directorial styles of the directors.

Anurag Basu, whose first experience was with teleserial Tara in the 1990s, says he worked odd jobs for many years to fund college. And that he found a lot of joy on film sets. He talks of the time he worked as a dancing extra, and of the times he was a plastic chair salesman.

Ashutosh Gowariker, who started out as an actor with contemporaries like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Deepak Tijori, says that after the first film, a director is robbed of his spontaneity and innocence.

Govind Nihalani, whose critically-acclaimed Tamas is a reflection of his family's turmoils during the Partition, says that the day he decided to learn filmmaking in Bengaluru, he told himself that he would one day make a film on a story based on events during the Partition.

There's Mahesh Bhatt talking about a scene from Zakhm, were the protagonist's father played by Nagarjuna does not open his shoes at home, and tells the director that the scene is from his childhood. His father Nanabhai Bhatt, already married, was never married to his mother, a Muslim woman, and would not take his shoes off in their house.

Subhash Ghai recalls the time legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak told him to pay special attention to cinematographers.

Filmmaker-composer, Vishal Bhardwaj, who worked with Bakshi's father and was even one of his pallbearer's, remembers the time he lost his own father because of financial constraints, and of the time he played the harmonium at food festivals. He remembers walking towards a house where his father lay dead. "Even now, when I see a Steadicam point-of-view shot, I travel back. I am reminded of that walk," he said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-their-first-take-i

How a song can be born. Aradhana.

How a song can be born.

Thank you dear Hari ji. Happy reading.
Hari uncle. A friend of my father, and mine too now. Rare was a day in my father's life, when my Dad may not have visited him at his shop and demanded, from mutual affection, "Brahmin nu cigarette pila." And Hari uncle would happily offer him his favourite, 555. Regards.

Once, Hari uncle and Dad were traveling in a car near Khar, and they saw a very pretty girl passing by. One of them remarked 'kya roop paya hai!'

Dad stopped the car and scribbled the mukhda of the song from Aradhana then and there: Roop Tera Mastana, Pyar Mera Deewana... The rest is history. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HenA-OUyo0s )

Hari Mehra's music shop is the one Farah Khan (choreographer/director) would visit as a child four days a week. In her words: "Four days a week, I would travel to Twist, a music shop in Khar-Bandra, Linking road, to buy vinyl records, a LP or an EP. Back home I would dance to the songs. I would do actress Helen’s cabarets, and when I would dance to the song, ‘Kaise rahun chup’ from the film Intaquam (1969), I too would break a glass at the end. (laughs)" - Farah Khan. (@Directors' Diaries)

Anurag Basu 'Making actors audition for roles doesn't serve any purpose'

'Making actors audition for roles doesn't serve any purpose'
Filmmaker Anurag Basu talks about his experience of directing movies and television serials in this extract from a new book. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150607/jsp/7days/story_24337.jsp

Directors' Diaries: Directors' Diaries - The Road To Their First Film ...

Directors' Diaries: Directors' Diaries - The Road To Their First Film ...: Film directors tell stories; they narrate them through their films. In this anthology, 12 film directors tell us about their journey from t...