K.K.Senthil Kumar: Story of the Man Responsible for the Visuals of RRR
When I hear about great visuals in Indian films, I often remember the film RRR and wonder who the man behind that mammoth visual extravaganza really was. The story behind this artist is quite endearing and inspiring. He is a renowned cinematographer who was born in Hyderabad to an army family. He had a huge interest in painting and photography and was always curious about new filmmaking technologies. Let’s talk about K.K. Senthil Kumar.
K.K. Senthil Kumar was born in Hyderabad. His family consisted of his parents and his 2 small sisters. His cousins came from a defense background, due to which he had to opt for the civil services sector too. His family wasn’t in a particularly good financial state and being the eldest child in his house, his father wanted him to follow in his cousins’ footsteps and participate in the defense sector too. While he was preparing for his civil exams, he opted for several competitive exams, during which, he opted for FTII entrance exams. The story behind his opting for the FTII entrance examinations is interesting. One fine day, his friend handed him his FTII form, since he was underage. Since he didn’t want to waste the form, he let K.K. Senthil opt for the examinations and encouraged him to fill up the FTII entrance examination form.
During K.K. Senthil’s interview, he was mesmerized by the FTII campus, encouraging him to opt for the entrance examinations next year in case he is unable to crack them this year. To his surprise, he cracked the entrance exam and interview on his very first attempt, proving to be a major turning point in his career. To this date, the cinematographer still claims that FTII is responsible for making him the visual artist he is today. He adds that it was impossible to enter the film industry without film school.
His love for painting and photography ignited his interest in cinematography. He opted for the “Visuals and Motion Picture Photography” sector in FTII.
He studied in FTII from 1995 to 1997. During the initial 10 days, FTII held the Andre Tarkovsky festival, during which he faced several struggles. Almost every frame of Andre’s film seemed like a textbook to Senthil Kumar and one needed to master the basics of filmmaking to fully understand his films. However, since he was a fresher, Andre’s films intimidated Senthil, almost provoking him to reconsider his choice for opting for the field of filmmaking. After every film’s screening, his batchmates had discussions regarding every shot of the film, while numerous people opted for exams multiple times, since he fell asleep during the screening, and was unable to completely watch films during the screening. In order to avoid falling asleep he consumed a lot of coffee and chocolates during class.
He found these 7 to 8 days in FTII to be really depressing since he was unable to understand the films that were screened. His drive for learning the basics of filmmaking attracted him to the FTII library, which presented him with tons of knowledge.
One fine day, FTII organized the screening of director Frank Capra’s film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. It was a political satire film and K.K. Senthil Kumar was able to understand the film quite easily. After the screening, he was satisfied and assured that he made the right call by entering the film industry. His hunger for knowledge and new technologies enabled him to learn numerous filmmaking techniques. During the final days of FTII, he was finally able to understand Andre Tarkovsky’s films.
He wanted to be a master in cinematography, due to which, he learned several concepts such as lighting, blocking, movement, framing, and camera work. He began observing the lighting on people when he visited hotels, which taught him lighting techniques.
K.K. Senthil Kumar started out as a cinematographer in the Telugu film “Aithe”. He was truly inspired by the works of cinematographer V.K Murthi. His work constitutes of films “Chattrapati, “Ashok”, “Yamadonga”, “Magadheera”, “Eega (Makkhi in Bollywood) “Bahubali”, and the recently released Oscar-winning film “RRR”.
Even today, whenever he is on set he prepares a checklist as per the requirements of the director, thereby helping the director realize his vision faithfully on the big screen.
He still considers himself to be in his learning phase and as usual is hungry for more. Similarly, we the audience should be equally ready for several of his other visually stunning projects.
Author: Anirudh G Rao