On a new Theeram
Cinematographer Gautham Sankar, who wields the camera for Theeram, recalls shooting for the movie, which is mostly set in night.
Debutant Saheed Arafath’s Theeram has been in news since its first look and later, the trailer and a song reached social media sites. Thrissur-based young cinematographer Gautham Sankar is the man behind the beautiful frames of Theeram which has Pranav Ratheesh, son of yesteryear actor Ratheesh and Askar Ameer, brother of actor Ajmal Ameer in the lead roles.
It was after working in the camera departments of several critically as well as commercially acclaimed films including Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam and Shyamaprasad’s Electra that Gautham stepped into Theeram. “It was through Pappu chettan (cinematographer of films like Njan Stev Lopez, Second Show and Ayal Sassi) that I got this offer. He was then busy with the production of Kammattipadam and thus he assigned me to take up this project,” he says.
About Theeram, he says “It is a feel-good film set against the backdrop of Alappuzha. Though the majority of the story is happening during night, we have tried our best to shoot with available natural light to give it a realistic feel. As the director and his team are from Alappuzha itself, they had clear idea about the locations.”
It was as an assistant director to Shyamaprasad that he came into the films. “He is my uncle and it was in his Electra that I first worked with. Later, I moved to Mumbai to assist with Sanu John Varghese, who was the cinematographer of Electra and worked in his ad films. I have worked in around 30 films with him before working in Vishwaroopam. After that I assisted Jomon Thomas in One By Two and a Tamil film before becoming independent with ad films. In between, I worked as a second unit cinematographer in Action Hero Biju and Koothara,” says Gautham amid the shoot of his ongoing film Ladoo.
“Arungeorge, the director, and Sagar, the writer, have been my friends for the past few years. It was after the production of Theeram got concluded did we start the pre-production of Ladoo. It is a fun film, which is under production in Thrissur,” says the cinematographer, about the movie produced by Tamil actor Dhanush.