BR Vijayalakshmi, cited as Asia’s first female cinematographer

Jul 30, 2022, 11:04 IST

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'Debutant cinematographer'. That was how the opening credits of the 1985 Tamil film 'Chinna Veedu' had referred to BR Vijayalakshmi, the woman who appears strapped to the dangling vines of a palm tree with a celluloid camera in her hands in a black-and-white photograph.

Vijayalakshmi, who is credited in the Limca Book of Records as Asia's first woman cinematographer, shot 22 films including 'Aruvadai Naal' and 'Therku Theru Machan'. She was often one of the few women in the mostly male film sets of the '80s and '90s.

Her debut as cinematographer was as accidental as her famous childhood friend Suhasini's debut as an actor. After the demise of her father BR Panthulu – a legendary actor, producer and director – Vijayalakshmi had trained as an interior designer.

Her friend Suhasini, who had studied cinematography, was working as a camera assistant to cinematographer Ashok Kumar at the time. Twenty-year-old Vijayalakshmi decided to land up on the set of director Mahendran's 'Nenjathai Killathe' in which the director had cast the feisty Suhasini as the lead character, a girl torn between the man she married and the man she loved.

Suhasini soon became a sought-after actor while Vijayalakshmi continued to not only assist Kumar in at least 30 productions but also served as unofficial translator for the UP-hailing cameraman who did not know Tamil. For nearly five years in the celluloid era, the industry saw Vijayalakshmi hauling lights and mounting lenses. Later, noted director K Bhagyaraj hired her as a cinematographer for 'Chinna Veedu' and insisted on marking Vijayalakshmi’s professional debut with the title 'debutant cinematographer'.

'Producer's cinematographer' was the unofficial industry title of Vijayalakshmi, who was soon recruited by many filmmakers including debutant directors who benefitted from her efficiency and fluency in film grammar. Though cinematographers had the last word on scenes in the celluloid era when there was no rewinding to gauge shot retakes, the commercial films she shot were devoid of the female gaze. In retrospective interviews, Vijayalakshmi would regret refusing art films in her desperation to prove herself with big-banner movies that are now deemed sexist.

Among such successful films was the 1984 Rajinikanth-starrer 'Kai Kodukkum Kai' in which she assisted director Mahendran. She also wrote the script for Sangeeth Sivan's Malayalam film 'Daddy' (1992) and directed the 1996 Tamil film 'Paattu Padava' which made it to the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) that year.

Though she did not face any overt sexism, Vijayalakshmi – who finds men in the film industry to be "liberal" and appreciative of good work – did meet a producer who didn’t think that a woman could shoot a film all by herself. “I thought of the mandolin prodigy U Srinivas. I said heck, if this guy can be considered a genius at such a young age, why can’t I shoot a film? That same producer later saw my work and praised it. He had forgotten his previous comment about me, but I remembered," Vijayalakshmi said in an interview with scroll.in.

The birth of her son when she was 43 years old marked the transition of Vijayalakshmi, who is married to sound recordist and computer graphics editor Sunil Kumar, from films that required outdoor shoots to the indoor world of television. She produced children’s serials such as 'Vasantham Colony' and the next time she winked into a film camera, it would be digital.

After a two-decade-long hiatus, Vijayalakshmi returned to a film set as director of the 2018 Malayalam film 'Abhiyum Anuvum'. While she doesn't regret giving up work to take care of her son, 64-year-old Vijayalakshmi – who is part of the Indian Women Cinematographers Collective which has over 100 members – routinely admits the toll of marriage and children on the careers of women who are passionate about art forms.

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