It has been a long journey for this shutterbug to enter the tinsel world. The long struggle succeeds at last. From a mediocre still photographer to the coveted career of cinematographer-cum-documentary film director, this young man’s story is that of agony and ecstasy.
Having screened his short film in the Cannes International Film Festival, V K Subhash, the cinematographer-cum-documentary film director, will soon crank the camera for a Tamil film independently. The film will have Karthik Balajee donning the lead role. His 30-minute Malayalam documentary film titled Chaaya (image) was selected and screened at the 64th Cannes Film Festival during May 14 to 21. “Owing to financial crunch, I could not reach Cannes. However, I was excited to receive the accreditation letter for my directorial venture,” says V K Subhash.
He says that his short film tells the story of a 10-year-old boy searching the photograph of his father who died of snake bite. “It was A V Anoop (Medimix) who dared to invest Rs 5 lakh for this venture and gave me full support to complete the film,” adds Subhash.
Subhash’s short and micro films had also been screened at Cannes Film Festival earlier. His maiden short film ‘Teacher Less Classrooms’ depicts the sad state of affairs of the hapless children in the Naxal-affected areas of Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand. He had seen several students learning in the classrooms without any teachers. “Some films are made out of money from my pocket. Many themes are kept under reserve for shooting owing to the shortage of money,” he added.
Starting his career as a fashion still photographer and videographer at his hamlet Valappu in Vypeen, the urge to scale high prompted him to try his luck in films. It was for the Malayalam movie ‘Oliver Twist’ that he independently cranked the camera first. However, the film has not been released yet. His second movie as a cinematographer was Suresh Gopi-Bala starrer ‘Ringtone.’
“It was under the late Vipin Das, that I learned the initials of cinematography. I worked as an assistant cinematographer under him for several films,” Subhash says.He got the Fuji Film Award in 2001 in an all-India competition. Subhash got ‘Kalaignar’ TV award for the best cameraman for the short film ‘Nijam’ in 2011.
Karthik Balajee was the director of the film. His latest accolade came in the form of cranking the camera for the best documentary film in the state government awards declared some weeks ago. The film titled ‘Making of a Maestro’ was based on the life of Kalamandalam Gopi (Asan).