Tamil Nadu

Ravi K. Chandran’s visual feats on calendar

—PHOTO: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

ROLLIING, ACTION: Ravi K. Chandran with Nandita Das.

For ace cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran, the New Year will begin on an interesting note. It may be ‘Saawariya’ again, but this time, in the form of still photograph from the film that has found a place in a calendar compiled by Kodak.

Chandran’s picture for the month of January, will accompany 11 other stills by leading cinematographers from around the world. Chandran is possibly the first Indian to have his work featured in this calendar.

Recently, having worked with actor Nandita Das in her directorial debut ‘In such times,’ the cinematographer says there are no projects coming up in Tamil, at least in the near future. In fact, it has been a while, almost four years, since Chandran looked Kollywood-ward. After ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’ and ‘Aayutha Ezhuthu,’ he has left fans in the south yearning for those visual feats. The cinematographer is quite excited about is his recent television commercial for Videocon, featuring actor Shah Rukh Khan and cricketer Dhoni. The ad, would not have happened, but for his sons. “I was not too keen on the commercial but the moment my sons heard Dhoni was one of the stars endorsing the product, they pestered me to take up the project so they will get to see their hero,” Chandran says. His sons, 9 and 14-year-olds, flew to Mumbai to see the ad being made. And when Shah Rukh spoke to them, they said…. “Oh, yes, we are here to see Dhoni,” which had the crew burst out in laughter.

Meera Srinivasan

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