There is immense pressure in proving the skeptics wrong” – Bejoy Nambiar

Many filmmakers dread making an experimental avant-garde type film, summoning up the paranoia and the challenges in making such a film. Bejoy says, “As a first time director, Read More">there is immense pressure in proving the skeptics wrong. It is not only about the others but it is also about proving it to yourself that youRead More

Many filmmakers dread making an experimental avant-garde type film, summoning up the paranoia and the challenges in making such a film. Bejoy says, "As a first time director, there is immense pressure in proving the skeptics wrong. It is not only about the others but it is also about proving it to yourself that you are capable in delivering what people are expecting you to deliver. Every moment you are constantly re-checking to make sure that, what you have in paper is what you finally manage to pull off accordingly. There are far too many challenges to name, every day and every moment is a challenge."

Editing is a storytelling art form, a creative process that pieces together the scenes and the sequences of the film. Also known as invisible art because once engaged in the film, a spectator foresees the editor’s contribution to the film. Speaking about Shaitan‘s edit, Bejoy says, Read More">“I sat for the entire editing phase for everyRead More

Editing is a storytelling art form, a creative process that pieces together the scenes and the sequences of the film. Also known as invisible art because once engaged in the film, a spectator foresees the editor's contribution to the film. Speaking about Shaitan's edit, Bejoy says, "I sat for the entire editing phase for every scene. If you are clear with your work then it is not really going to be a puzzle for you to piece together. I have no problem in admitting that for my first short film. I had no idea where it was going. As per the story, I just went and shot the film and when I sat for editing the film I was puzzled on how it would all come together. You tend to learn a lot on the way as you keep working. I have worked on big budgeted films like Guru, Raavan and I have also made many short films… the kind of experience and knowledge that you can get with such work is immense. Shaitan is a reflection of a lot of work from my past that I have been able to learn; this was also a major learning experience. With that being said, it was not really a puzzle at the edit table but rather more of an extension of the final product that we wanted."

It is extremely crucial that a characters introduction is thought out because the fist impression always gives a unique insight into the characters frame of mind, the introduction of a character pretty much invokes some sense of emotion into the scene to inspire or garner an intense audience reaction. In Shaitan, Read More">Inspector Mathur’s character wasRead More

It is extremely crucial that a characters introduction is thought out because the fist impression always gives a unique insight into the characters frame of mind, the introduction of a character pretty much invokes some sense of emotion into the scene to inspire or garner an intense audience reaction. In Shaitan, Inspector Mathur's character was introduced through his seething point of view. Speaking about the character's introduction, Bejoy says, "A lot of prep went into executing Rajeev Khandelwal's character, Inspector Mathur. A special rig was fashioned in such a way that we used a 7D latched onto a helmet. The designed rig was made keeping the eye level in mind, it is like wearing a helmet and the camera is right in front of your eyes. The character's introduction was clearly mentioned on paper, we knew what we wanted to point out in the end with the reflection of the car's window unveiling the character for the first time."

Talking about the thought process and the execution on the characterization played by the actors, Bejoy says, "We pretty much had strong content that was scripted and we knew the idea that required being transcripted. Basically what you have on paper is what you finally execute. The actors brought forth a lot on the table. They really understood the graph and the nuances of each character they portrayed on screen. This helped them tryout new things and made them improvise above the script which evidently was deciphered quite well on screen. Every performance actually lifter that scene and I think that's how things finally worked out."

Rather than opting for big stars, Bejoy chose fresher cast like Kalki, Rajeev and a whole bunch of new faces. Says Bejoy, “Stars do not want to work in an ensemble film, Read More">unless it’s a big budget comedy franchise or something. I would have loved to work with well known faces but the thing isRead More

Rather than opting for big stars, Bejoy chose fresher cast like Kalki, Rajeev and a whole bunch of new faces. Says Bejoy, "Stars do not want to work in an ensemble film, unless it's a big budget comedy franchise or something. I would have loved to work with well known faces but the thing is that they come with their set of baggage. Stars do not want to be a part of it when you are doing a thriller and there were not many actors in the scene, considering the age bracket we were looking at. We needed some fresh blood in the film and I am glad we went that way because we got to see some very interesting actors. In the end it was the script, they made the characters their own and did something remarkable, this would not have been possible if I had worked with a star."

Pre-production, is fundamental in defining the overall vision of the film and making sure that the performance is delivered in harmony to that vision. It is critically important to make the best use of time available at hand in designing and planning out a film, working on the script and the pre-production phase. Bejoy says, Read More">Read More

Pre-production, is fundamental in defining the overall vision of the film and making sure that the performance is delivered in harmony to that vision. It is critically important to make the best use of time available at hand in designing and planning out a film, working on the script and the pre-production phase. Bejoy says, "The idea initially was to do something based on a true incident, inching towards the Adnan Patrawala case. This made me want to do a kidnap kind of a thriller because it excited me. During the screenplay phase of pre-production, we latched on to true incidents through police records and tried to incorporate them into the screenplay. I had an excellent direction and production team in place, even though it was a low-budgeted film. The guys were very technically sound. Although the film kept on stalling at different places, this gave us more time for working on pre-production process right from casting, location, procuring special equipment etc. While the film was in constant development for over one and a half years, the pre-production phase took us a good six months to accomplish."

For executing some of the avant-garde point of view scenes in the film, Bejoy was required to procure special cameras and rigs for Shaitan. "I knew this was very treatment heavy film, I always allocate a certain amount of the budget for special equipment that would be used in the film's production. We already had a notion on how we were going to shoot some of the shots, for which we planned and did a thorough design in execution. I made sure that we had the right technical equipment and technicians on board to help us achieve this. In all, there were three cameras put to use, apart from the Red Camera that was used for the principal photography, we also employed the 7D and the Weisscam. Shooting in 7D gave us the freedom and flexibility in taking some very unusual shots," explains Bejoy.