Sudeep Chatterjee and The Journey of a Visual Artist Across the Film Industry

There are often artists who think far beyond the ordinary, making up a painting in their mind ready to translate it through the visual medium. Cinematographers are the ones giving full justice to any film. Today let’s explore one such cinematographer of the Indian film industry who has truly mesmerized us with his visuals.

Sudeep Chatterjee is an Indian cinematographer born in Kolkata. He was presented with a camera as soon as he passed his 10th-class examination. This camera presented him with the path for his career. After his schooling days, he studied in an engineering college, but after mere 8 months he left the join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, where he studied cinematography.

After finishing his Film and Television Institute of India course, he began his career in Kolkata by making documentaries and advertisements, eventually after 2 years, he collaborated with filmmaker Anjan Dutt offered him Bada Din (1997), starring Shabana Azmi. Thereafter, he shifted to Mumbai and began working in commercials, and TV series for a year. After a year he worked on Ram Gopal Varma’s Road (2002).

Soon he began working in films across drama, thriller, and action genres. He has also shot the Salman Khan starrer, Lucky: No Time for Love (2005), where he captured the beautiful locales of Russia. After this film, he worked with Nagesh Kukunoor’s films namely Dor (2006), Iqbal (2005) and Jaan-E-Mann (2005). The 2005 film garnered him fame, due to which he got to work in the Shimit Amin directorial film Chak De! India (2007).  He grained and desaturated the film and shot almost 80% of the movie with a hand-held camera to give the film a grounded look, which eventually won him numerous awards such as Zee Cine Award for Best Cinematography, 2008 Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography, IIFA Award for Best Cinematography, and others. His next significant work was in Bengali film, Kaalpurush (2008), directed by Buddhadev Dasgupta, an acclaimed film director of Bengali cinema. It starred Mithun Chakraborty and Rahul Bose. This film garnered the National Film Award for Best Feature Film.

In 2010 came Guzaarish directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, Sudeep had previously apprenticed with Sanjay, also a fellow FTII student, in 1942: A Love Story, where he was the song director. Guzaarish Won IIFA, Star Screen, and Apsara awards for Best Cinematography.

Then he worked on the third installment of the Doom franchise  Dhoom 3 in 2013. He then shot the film Chotushkone (2014) directed by acclaimed director Srijit Mukherji for which Chatterjee won the prestigious National Film Award for Best Cinematography.

Chatterjee then won his second National award in 2015 for Bajirao Mastani directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 

He then collaborated with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Padmavat (2018). He also shot the period drama Gangubai Kathiawadi (2021) directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the recently released Brahmastra (2022). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Kautik International Student Film Festival.

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He has mostly shot Hindi and Bengali films and collaborated with several critically acclaimed directors such as Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Ram Gopal Verma, Srijit Mukherji, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Exploration is the Key to Growth

It is clear through Sudeep Chatterjee’s journey that he has explored and worked on several projects that have made him the maestro that he is today. And, it is therefore clear, that small steps and the hunger for perfection and exploration are what make a cinematographer great. Something that all aspiring filmmakers and cinematographers should learn from.

Author – Anirudh G Rao