‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee, chats with mid-day.com
Sudeep Chatterjee with Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt starrer, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi's’ cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee, in a conversation with mid-day.com, shares the challenges that went behind making the film.
ADVERTISEMENT
Speaking of how he came on board Sudeep, who has worked on films like Guzaarish, Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat with Sanjay Leela Bhansali reveals, "Sanjay used to keep talking about ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ now and then and I knew it was a film he wanted to make. It was to happen after 'Inshallah'. We were doing a recce for 'Inshallah' at Banganga tank and Sanjay told me we might use the location for 'Gangubai.' I would keep telling him I don’t have any reference or script for 'Gangubai.' Then suddenly 'Inshallah' got shelved, when we were ready to start shooting the next day. We were all dejected but after a week Sanjay called me to his office. We immediately started prep for 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' and it was probably the quickest prep I’ve done for any film. We were ready to shoot in three months, the set construction started in a couple of days. Then the first lockdown happened which was the biggest disappointment, so Covid-19 turned out to be an integral part of the film. We started shoot in between the two lockdowns and the number of Covid-19 protocols we had to follow was bizarre. I must have taken the Covid test atleast 100 times."
Sharing the major challenge that he had to work on, he adds, "We created Kamathipura on a set and a part of it was covered so I could control daylight scenes. So, we would shoot the scenes at night and make it look like daylight scenes. The initial plan was to complete the mains parts, take off the cover and film wide shots, in real daylight. For example the climax where the procession takes place. The film was to be completed by June that year and the set was not built to last the monsoon. Eventually we had to create lighting for the entire film artificially and make it look like we shot in daylight, which was a big task."
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
