After having been a photographer for a number of films including Kadhal, Pasanga and Vamsam, Vijay M has graduated as a cinematographer with Pandiraj’s Marina. However, he gives credit to his friend and Pandiraj’s associate Naveen for the promotion. “We were shooting a short film sometime back. Naveen showed the footages to Pandiraj and that’s how it all happened,” says Vijay. A native of a village near Krishnagiri, Vijay came to Chennai in 1997 and has worked with many cinematographers before turning into one himself.
Vijay says shooting on the Marina Beach was a challenge. “We had to shoot at a particular time to get the right light and ambience. If we missed it, we had to wait a whole day again for the right time to come,” he says. However, he says the effort was worth it as the scenes in the film would look natural with real people from the beach.
Despite Marina being his debut movie, Vijay says he didn’t feel any pressure as he never felt like a debutant. “From the hero Sivakarthikeyan to assistant directors, everybody were friendly at the shooting spot. It was so easy to work with all of them as everyone worked with dedication,” says Vijay. He is grateful to Pandiraj for having faith in him and hasn’t committed to other projects as yet.