Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal's challenging underwater shoot

The bright blue waters beating against the white sands; when

Vishnu Panicker

took pictures of Kavaratti, he felt thrilled. “I thought if the photos could come out so well, how much more amazing would the visuals look,” says the cinematographer of Kamal’s

Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal

.


The film, a love story featuring debutants Riddhi Kumar and Ajmal, is set in Lakshadweep and consists of several challenging underwater scenes, some of which were shot in the deep sea. “Shooting underwater was an amazing experience but posed its own difficulties. You have to shoot at 9 am and between 3 and 4 pm, because the light is best then. And while there are no angle issues, you have things like water currents to look out for,” says Vishnu, who has worked in Bollywood, including as assistant cameraman on films such as Tamasha and Sanju.

“Thanks to my Bollywood connections, as soon as Kamal sir told me the story, I knew the apt crew to rope in and received his full approval. I used a proper camera, because I did not want to compromise on the shots, and got the Mumbai team to provide a waterproof case and such,” says Vishnu, adding he has shot underwater scenes in Bollywood.

Perhaps, one of the biggest challenges was that the actors did not know swimming. The major scenes are with Vinayakan, who is a sort of protector to Riddhi’s character. “He plays a well-known fisherman in the region. But while Vinayakan doesn’t know swimming, his commitment to the role made it easy to do. The actors, including Riddhi, would go underwater with oxygen masks and then, we would shoot the scenes for as long as they could hold their breath… for up to 20 seconds,” says Vishnu.