Chella Vaithiyanathan paints with light, captures timeless moments that last more than a lifetime. His 37 years of experience in the field of photography and videography has bagged him more than three generations of treasure. What adds to the exceeding demand of his work is his true love towards Indian classical arts.
And now, some 6,000 videos later, he has started his own web channel that has grown into a project for educating the underprivileged students of Greater Chennai.
“Started in 2017, it is a forum where rasikas from all over the world can view concerts of both the yesteryear generation and the new stars. It also has rare snippets of musicians such as Chengalpettu Renganathan, R R Srikantan, T K Govinda Rao who have transcended mortal life,” says the 56-year-old, whose lenses have documented the best of performances in Chennai.
One can subscribe to the channel with a start/basic/advance plan at the cost of `1,500/`3,000/`6,000 for
Indians and $45/$90/$180 for NRIs.
“Access to the membership plans will begin in August. And funds raised through this will be directed to educate the less privileged children. Eventually, it would also allow subscribers to identify the organisation or individual, they would like to render support, which means each member will be able to adopt a child,” says Chella, who also has a team of 15 that does wedding photography.
This journey began when the naughty boy in his teens refused to study after his Class X board examinations and lived in a tiny village near Kutralam in Tamil Nadu. With four sisters and a brother, Chella was sure he had to be independent. “But I wasn’t sure that it would be photography, until I bought a camera with my salary as a labourer in Madurai,” he says.
An assignment to capture water scarcity for a reputed media house in the early 80s as a freelancer was his major break. “I realised that as a freelance photographer, my per-day earning was almost equal to my whole month’s salary. It then occurred to me to try it out.”
With every passing year, his career shaped into a full-fledged dance photographer. In 1993, he got married.
“The first break as a dance photographer was with The Dhananjayans, when I was asked to take photographs for their performance in the early 80s. Thereafter, people started noticing me. Those days, photography wasn’t such a demanding profession.”
And his dedication gradually led him to do some charity at a bigger level. “When I approached the artists, they were more than happy to have their videos uploaded on the channel. So my data bank has more than enough resources,” says Chella.
Since it involves payments from overseas, paperworks took little time, he is happy the way it’s going.
A man of no dreams for himself, Chella says, “The purpose of life is to be contented with what one has; to be useful and compassionate.”
Always busy doing good to others, he feels pride in paying tuition fee of economically deprived children or rendering his photography services free to help the needy in their career.