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By Debasis Barik
Bhubaneswar: When everybody is lapping up the Kangana Ranaut-R Madhavan-starrer ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ (TWMR), a sequel to 2011 hit ‘Tanu Weds Manu’, few people knew it that this Rs 100-crore Bolly outing has an Odisha connection.
Yes, the connection this time is a big one – its director of photography (DOP), the second most important person after the director, Chirantan Das, the man behind beautifully captured emotions, actions of affable Kusum and Tanu (both played by Kangana), locales accentuating the storyline starting from Lucknow to London.
“It was an absolute joy and fun to work with Anand L. Rai (director of the flick) as we both share great understanding and camaraderie,” explained an elated Chirantan.
Echoing his views, Rai is all praise for the Odisha-born technician with whom he collaborated right from his debut movie ‘Tanu Weds Manu’.
Chirantan, who had his school and college education in Bhubaneswar, is a university dropout, and he is ‘proud’ of it now. Reason: he started developing an interest in photography while studying in BJB College, and often bunked classes to go his friend’s place to learn the skills as he did not have a camera then.
His father, Chitaranjan Das, who was a professor in Utkal University, wanted his son to pursue engineering, but destiny had something else in store for Chirantan. He did take admission in MSc in Utkal University bowing to his parents’ wishes, but after a year, he got what his heart always wanted – admission into the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune.
FTII, where India’s finest filmmakers passed out from, welcomed Chirantan to its three year Cinematography course (1991-194). “My real time learning started at FTII, where I met some top brains of Indian cinema which eventually helped me sharpen my craft a lot,” revealed Chirantan.
After finishing his studies, he landed in the ‘city of dreams’ Mumbai to pursue his career, but like everybody, he has had his share of struggles before getting his first project ‘Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai’, directed by National Award winning director Hansal Mehta, in 2001.
Unfortunately, that film did not do well at the box office. But Chirantan caught the attention of filmmakers for his exceptional camerawork. In 2008, he did a film called ‘1971’, directed by Amrit Sagar, which also faced the same fate like the earlier one.
Besides, Chirantan also did Ritesh Deshmukh-Genelia D’Souza-starrer 2012 film ‘Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya’, helmed by Mandeep Kumar. He was also the cameraman of acclaimed films such ‘Lakhsmi’ and ‘Dhanak’, helmed by another National Award winning director Nagesh Kukunoor.
The man, who is still basking in the overwhelming box office success of TWMR, has signed director duo Radhika Rao-Vinay Sapru’s next ‘Sanam Teri Kasam’.
When asked about having any Odia projects in the pipeline, the Mumbai-based cameraman said, “As of now, I am focusing on Bollywood. But I would love to do Odia films if something worthy comes my way.”
“I had done an Odia film titled ‘Matira Bandhan’ in 2010, directed by Himansu Khatua. But it did not release for some unknown reasons,” Das concluded. A sad experience in hometown, isn’t it?
