Weaving magic through his lenses – Piyush Puty
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 18 :
“It’s not what you are but what you do that defines who you are,” strongly believes Piyush Puty the young, good looking and very talented cinematographer from Odisha.
Piyush and Harshbir Singh have done some brilliant cinematography in the award-winning documentary Amdavad ma famous directed by Hardik Mehta.This 30-minute documentary that captures the craze of people during the kite flying festival in Ahmedabad has been filmed during the two Uttarayans and has bagged many awards.
Puty came to limelight when the documentary based on the story of nine year old Zaid, a kite runner in Ahmedabad, received the National Film Award for the best non-feature film at the 63rd National Film Awards for 2015.The journey started with director Hardik Mehta coming up with the idea of visiting Old Ahmedabad during the Uttarayan (January 2014) and capturing the madness. Both reached the city three days prior to the festival to do some research about the content.They started shooting the moment they got down from the train and captured different activities in the city from dawn to dusk.In 2015 they went back again with a larger crew comprising of a second cinematographer, sound recordist and production assistants. It was a long 18 month journey of emotions and madness, from the ideations of making the film to completing it.
The film has also won the best short documentary award at the 2015 Budapest International Documentary Film Festival and the Al Jazeera International Documentary Festival, Doha, Qatar. The film will now be competing at the World Film Festival, Tatru, Cortex Film Festival, Portugal and Silk Road Film Festival, Dublin.
“To make a good film, you need to have a language which all will understand with a good story. I have learnt that to make a quality documentary, you need to be absolutely honest while documenting, capturing everything that you see, hear and are amazed at.It should communicate a fact,touch the hearts and leave the viewers with a lasting memory.The whole process of research makes the documentary wholesome,” comments Piyush.
Born to Gadadhar and Padmini, he completed his boards from DAV Chandrashekarpur and majored in Physics from BJB autonomous college in Bhubaneswar.“I never got a professional training and could not clear the entrance for the Film and Television Institute of India(FTII) but did a short stint in Film Appreciation from the same. My constant interaction with my father who is a renowned director, Jugal Debata the famous cinematographer and other professionals in Mumbai, exposed me to the varying approach and perspectives required in this field,” said Piyush.
He has assisted in a few Bollywood feature films like Don-2(India schedule),Wake up Sid, Lootera in the making (documentary) and more than 50 advertisement films. A very interesting film “The Sachin Project,” based on the legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s last 20 days in international cricket, is still waiting to be completed .“ I was the cinematographer of the entire 20-days’ shoot, during which we shot inside the cricketer’s house, his hotel room, stadium, dressing room etc ,” smiles the young cinematographer.
He is currently working on a project very close to his heart, The Tribal Scoop which revolves round hockey and is very popular in Odisha.Piyush is the cinematographer and producer of the film which is being directed by Biswa Ranjan Pradhan, one of the most sought after post production director in the advertising industry of Mumbai. Former Captain of the Indian Hockey team Dilip Tirkey has been a guiding angel and has shared a lot of information. A lot of shooting has been done in and around Sundergarh district of Odisha which has been the hockey crucible of the national game.
Documentaries like, ‘Forever Young’ by Ranjan Palit,’War and Peace’ by Anand Patwardhan and ‘Senna’ by Asif Kapadia inspires this young man as he tries to learn the tricks of making quality films .
“There is no dearth to creative projects if you have the talent and are ready to work hard,” said Piyush.“Whenever my dates match I also love to work with Vishal Punjabi who is a renowned director of wedding films,” he added.
Piyush mesmerizes through his lenses and weaves stories which instantly charm the audience. According to him you have to dream big and dare to fail because creativity is a quest, a hunt and a pilgrimage.
Comments are closed.