The Architecture of Immersive Chaos

Cinematographer Arvind S. Kashyap recounts moving heaven and earth to bring to life Rishab Shetty's Kantara: A Legend Chapter-1

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I was called to Mangaluru around two and a half years ago for this film. Director Rishab Shetty told me they had a concrete script, and after the narration, he pulled me aside. “This is going to be bigger than anything we’ve done before,” he said. “I need you to be with me throughout filming as a supporting shoulder.”

That’s when we knew we all needed to commit completely. We moved to Kundapura, set up offices for writing, direction and production. We weren’t just making a film — we were living it.

We designed a visual language using three different lens systems for the three distinct time periods in the film. The Rajasekhara and Kulasekhara era — featuring Jayaram as King Rajashekara and Gulshan Devaiah as his son, Kulashekara — was primarily shot with anamorphic lenses. For King Vijayendra’s sequences, we used Atlas anamorphic lenses, while nighttime scenes were captured with spherical lenses.

One of the most striking shots shows Kulashekara looking up in disbelief as blood drips onto his face. For this, we used a +1 dioptre filter [a lens that screws onto a camera lens to allow it to focus on subjects that are closer than the normal minimum focus distance] in front of the camera to keep only his face in sharp focus while throwing everything else out. The camera was three or four inches away from Devaiah's face, and it made him pretty uncomfortable, I'm sure, but we got the shot on our first take. His expression was spot on.