Just when he had completed Mani Ratnam’s Yuva, he found himself in a similar creative conundrum when he had to balance the visual languages of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s near monochromatic Black, with the rustic, earthy tones of Amol Palekar’s Paheli. “Completely different visually, for the work on both was going on around the same time.” He recalls the effort it took to make sure the imagery of both films never mingled with each other. Lensing, lighting, colours and angles, everything had to be different.
In Priyadarshan’s Virasat, a remake of Kamal Haasan’s Thevar Magan, Chandran was required to find a new way to say a story that had been etched in the mind of every Tamilian. Apart from Bharathan’s direction, it was a film that brought together the music of Illaiyaraaja with the acting prowess of Tamil cinema’s two greatest actors, Sivaji Ganesan and Kamal Haasan, and was shot by PC Sreeram. Aspiring for similar greatness may seem too farfetched, but the images of the new film, set in north India, gave them the space to experiment a little.
He recalls, “Priyan was sure he wanted to shoot most of the outdoor portions during the golden hour. So, we would start setting up at 4AM for scene that we had to shoot between 6AM and 7AM. During the day, we would then shoot all the indoor scenes and then go outdoors to shoot one more scene between 6PM and 7PM.”
