It was after completing his post graduation in English literature that Prakash Velayudhan decided to pursue his dream of becoming a cinematographer. A common name in the film firled as assistant cinematographer, this Thrissur native has now carved a niche for himself for his enigmatic visuals for recently released Tovino Thomas starrer Oru Mexican Aparatha. He joined OMA after working as operating cinematographer in Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay On his entry to this campus thriller, he says, “I have been friends with Tom Emmatty for the past few years as I had worked as the DOP of his commercials.”
“One day, he called me and talked about this project. The main factor which attracted me to this project is of course the way he conceived the film. He is not a person who creates artificial mood on the screen. He gives full freedom to each person which helps them come up with natural expressions. I like that style. I do not opt to mark a particular place for the artiste to deliver the dialogue,” he says. It was a challenge for a cinematographer to make a film more engaging when majority of scenes were being canned at a single location. “The lion’s share of the story is happening in the college and the hostel. When the college sequences were framed at Maharaja’s College, the hostel was set at a school. Though the locations are repeated, we have tried to make the activities and framing more interesting.”
Was this his maiden feature venture? “No, back in 2012, I have cranked camera for a Malayalam film, which did not perform well in the box office. Later I moved to work in Mumbai,” says the man who has worked under cinematographers like Rajeev Ravi and Jain Joseph. Prakash is currently setting frames for Gireesh Mano’s Lava Kusha, which has Biju Menon, Aju Varghese and Neeraj Madhav in the lead roles.
