Hi Prithvi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started off by falling in love with the art of photography. I was always inclined toward capturing images more than any of my peers. My parents bought me a 35mm point-and-shoot film camera for my school trip and that is when I realized how much I loved photographing different subjects. Later on, during my bachelor’s in Design in Italy, I started understanding and appreciating various aspects of art. In Torino, I visited some of the best museums displaying works from the most renowned painters. I started falling in love with the works of Edward Hopper, Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Peder Severin Krøyer to name a few. I somewhere knew I wanted to create something like those artworks combining my passion for photography and love for films.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
So far, it has been a smooth road in terms of knowing what I want to pursue and having complete freedom and support from my family and friends. The only struggle I would say was to cope with the fact that there are people my age who have started pursuing this before me and have more knowledge and experience in the field of filmmaking.
My love for cinematography as an art form quickly overshadowed that fear and I realized that even though I have come a long way from where I started, I will never stop acquiring new skills to improve my art and I will always keep evolving.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Cinematographer, who in layman’s terms is a person that encapsulates and paints a director’s vision and brings it to life. The simple answer to what sets me apart, I’d say would be empathy. Filmmaking like a lot of other art forms is a process that requires a lot of people to work towards achieving a common goal. Whether a feature film, a short film or a music video, they are all intensive team-driven processes that at times can be mentally and physically taxing.
When I am on a set, I like to keep a check on people working around me and see that they are having a good time. I want the people helping me to have a sense of belongingness on the set and feel welcomed. One such thing I do is to hear their input.
1.) It makes them feel inclusive.
2.) If you implement their input and it’s appreciated by your peers, it gets it gets to be called yours.
What are your plans for the future?
I don’t plan that far ahead. That is one thing the pandemic has taught me. I take each day as it comes and so far, this philosophy of mine has been super rewarding. The one thing I would say is that I would like to continue to hone as many skills as possible and evolve as a cinematographer. I would like to keep up with the constantly advancing technology which at the end of the day would make me more knowledgeable and prepare me to take more risks.
CONTACT INFO:
Website: www.prithvi-chauhan.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prithvi_dp/
