Interview with Manu Anand, Director of Photography of Fan
- Interview with Manu Anand, Director of Photography of Fan
New York City, January 5, 2017
Manu Anand graduated from the Mass Communication Research Center at Jamia Millia Islamia, in 2002, and since then has worked in the Bombay film, television, and music industry. He worked on documentary shorts, shorts, and video documentaries before shooting his first feature Shuddh Desi Romance (Maneesh Sharma, IN, 2013). Manu’s second feature project, the National Award winner, Dum Laga Ke Haisha (Sharat Katariya, IN, 2015) earned him the “Best Cinematography” award at the 61st Filmfare Awards. Fan (Maneesh Sharma, IN, 2016) is Manu’s third feature.
There are two distinct protagonists in the film: the fan Gaurav Chandna and the star Aryan Khanna, but played by the same star-actor, Shah Rukh Khan. How conscious were you of this as you shot the film? Were there narrative, technical, or aesthetic reasons for lighting them differently or for preparing a distinct shot design for each character? How deliberate was this process?
The director, Maneesh Sharma, and I had many discussions about visual cues, subliminal cues, color palette, and several other visual aspects. These intense discussions helped us find the cinematic language of the film. A lot of these cues are very subliminal and not in-your-face. There are certain things that we did along with the production and the costume designer. There is a certain palette for the fan and his world, and there is a different palette for the star’s world. The fan’s palette is slightly warmer; the star’s palette is a little more monochromatic with [End Page 209] greys and browns. And we also tried to do some amount of mixed lighting in the film. So there is a lot of cool and warm light. . .
So warm light for Gaurav and cool light for Aryan?
Not always. There is a mix. For instance, in the famous pre-interval, face-off scene, when Aryan and Gaurav meet each other in the police station bathroom, there is a lot of warm and cool light mixed together.
To follow up on that particular sequence: The two characters sit across from each other, and there is a mirror in the background that multiplies their images infinitely and suggests doubling on several levels. Was that mirror a part of the screenplay or something that you stumbled upon during the location recce?
No, that was not a part of the screenplay. The screenplay indicates that a meeting will take place, in the jail cell, but it is not specified exactly where. During my pre-shoot research for the film, I looked at various images, and I was fascinated by the idea of using an infinity mirror. I shared some of these images with the director and he really liked the infinity mirror idea. So he requested the production designer to set the scene in a place where one can have a mirror. The production designer suggested that he could create a run-down toilet in order to justify the use of mirrors in a police station. We were keen to make this scene distinct.
And this was also the first scene we shot during the actual filming process, after the first round of tests. For both the actor and the director, it was important to know how these characters are going to be pitched against each other, because it’s the same actor. For the director, it was important to witness the dynamic of how Shah Rukh is going to play Gaurav vis-à-vis Aryan.
Hence, we incorporated the infinity mirror since we thought it will make the scene really special. The mirroring of images is, once again, a subliminal cue. But it was very tricky to shoot, extremely tricky. There were many concerns. Where do you place the camera? How do you hide it? The actor’s double role made it even more difficult. Yet, the scene is certainly the highlight of the film!
Another follow up about this sequence: When you are intercutting between the two characters, in a series of over-the-shoulder shots, or even during a straight two...
