Spanish cinematographer Dani Sanchez Lopez brought alive the legendary actor Savitri on screen with Mahanati. The humble and grounded technician talks excitedly about the project, saying he is still in a hangover.
Recollecting his one-year work on Mahanati (Nadigayar Thilagam in Tamil), he told The Quint that there was a lot of research and brainstorming done to recreate iconic moments, colour palettes and hues.
He said he shared a fantastic rapport with the director Nag Ashwin and is looking forward to collaborating with him again. Dani has received great appreciation for the movie San 75, a political thriller set in times of emergency, and the music video he directed and shot for Detective Byomkesh Bakshi by Dibakar Banerjee.
The Quint caught up with the Dani to find out what went into the making of this befitting tribute.
How did Mahanati happen to you? What was the homework like?
It was a story about two women – which was itself refreshing – who were rebelling against the system to actually work towards what they believed in. Both of them were great talented professionals. Nag (director) said I could bring something different but I definitely needed to watch Savitri’s movies. That was my absolute pleasure. I was astounded by the talent from the industry. I wish these movies were available for everyone to watch. We should work towards restoring them and yes, with subtitles!
Then I saw her private life through photos, books and dissected her personality and emotional journey through life.
Sometimes the collaboration between a director and his DoP can be convoluted. What was the dynamic between you two?
What was common with both of us was that we wanted to take up challenges. We gave ourselves to the film. Nagi would sleep for just an hour and even I would be ready to work all the time – and it was definitely worth it for the movie. Every time we finish a scene very well, we don’t go, ‘Oh my God! This is so awesome.’ We just kept thinking ‘How can we make it better?’
Mahanati is a naked portrayal of the legendary actor’s life and not just a glossed, rosy picture. This couldn’t have been a befitting tribute only because of the acting, make up and costumes, but the camerawork played a major role too. The visuals transport the audience to another time zone. How did you achieve that?
Savitri was a legend in the cinema world but she was also a human being. She is the demo-god in cinema but we wanted to see her in her intimate life. I was absolutely inspired by her family, both her sons, and wanted to show how they see their mother.
There are two personas onscreen: Savitri and Mahanati. We wanted to show the Savitri who was struggling being who she was and being the person people wanted her to be. And that is what made her character larger than life. We used mirrors to show several reflections of her persona.
For Vani, the journalist who is always investigating, the camera would go through curtains, gates, doors, as she is always trying to penetrate, to get the story right.
You chose to shoot the entire movie on film? Why?
The costumes, locations tell you the time frame in which it is happening but how do we show the audience that this is not now but back in the day? We decided to shoot on film to get the vintage look of the colours and grain of super 16mm to capture the present in the film, which is the early 80s. We used anamorphic lenses to show the grandness. We wanted to show Savitri as how everybody remembers her.
You said the ‘psychology of colour was subjective.’ What did you mean and how did you do that in Mahanati?
Colours come the closest to evoking an emotional response. There are warm colours, cool colours and some which don’t mean anything specifically. I brought to the table the woman Natalie Kalmus. She was the wife of the inventor of Technicolor. She was a very controversial character because she controlled colour in Hollywood for years. Just like her, we decided to craft a colour palette that will show Savitri’s journey psychologically and visually – browns, greens, yellows – all earth colours.
Everything gets a little more interesting and complex in the second half. In the movie when love happens, not only in costumes but also for the colour tone, we had to find the perfect tint.
The moment she becomes a little too much for Gemini to handle, she stops being Savitri and becomes Mahanati. When she breaks up with him, that is the first time we see the colour blue. We didn’t want an Instagram-like filter, but a natural look. So we avoided it completely till then, so when blue comes into the frame you go ‘Ah!’
How did you create Savitri’s iconic cinema moments?
I would study the frames of different movies, wondering how they did it. I also had to work with the fact that now we don’t have just black and white, but colour too. So I had to change some things for the transition between black and white and colour to be seamless. It was difficult but it definitely paid off.
We shot so much more, many beautiful moments. I hope they bring that out because 3 hours is not enough to show her journey of a lifetime. Absolutely humbled to bring Savitri back to life.
Your favourite Indian movies and a director you would like to work with in the future?
My most favourite movies from India are Marathi movie Court by Chaitanya Tamhane, documentary film Gulabi Gang and the best of all Mayabazar.
Satyajit Ray was the Kurosawa of India. For this movie, we worked very closely with the styles in Kaagaz Ke Phool, Bhumika. I would’ve loved to work with him.
Your message to the Indian cinema world?
I hope that after Mahanati, more people are inspired to tell such stories, map the lifetimes of other legends in a better quality format. There are so many gems which need to be immortalised by restoring. I hope we can get a special edition of all such movies, the original version, for the world to see.
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