‘Ramayana’ Cinematographer Pankaj Kumar on Yash’s Ten Headed Ravana and Why Only Half the Tandav Sequence Made the Cut (EXCLUSIVE)

“Ramayana: Part 1” is currently setting new benchmarks at the global box office. The film is filled with several mind-blowing sequences, which are executed through technical expertise and the latest technologies, VFX and CGI. The 10-headed Ravana sequence featuring Yash is considered one of the best scenes, along with the Jatayu aerial sequence in the movie.

The film’s DoP Pankaj Kumar revealed that the Dashanan (10-headed) sequence was the toughest to execute for him and credited VFX artists for their hard work.

Explaining the breakdown of the scene, he shares, “I think the 10-headed Ravana sequence was the toughest from the VFX point of view. The VFX artists have done a fabulous job on it. The sequence when Ravana is fighting his own demons inside his head, where you see 10 Ravanas interacting with each other, was a very long sequence to plan because Yash was going to appear in 10 avatars. It took us a while to plan the motion-control camera and decide where we were going to place each of them.”

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“The sequence was going to be shot over multiple days. We couldn't finish it in one day because Yash had to get into 10 different avatars, and we had to repeat the same action and movements again and again. That was a complicated planning process to execute. So, yes, I remember that sequence taking us the longest to execute,” he adds.

Kumar also credited Yash for his creative interpretation and contribution to this layered and complicated sequence. “The Dashanan sequence also deserves a lot of credit to Yash. He brought a lot of intensity to the performance and worked very hard to bring variety to the different characters in that sequence. A lot of credit also goes to Nitesh for coming up with the idea of not portraying the 10 heads in the conventional way we have imagined them. Instead, he chose a very metaphysical interpretation of the 10 heads, which I thought was brilliant.”

The cinematographer also revealed that the powerful Ravana Tandav song sequence featuring Yash and choreographed by Shiamak Davar was edited. He reveals “One of the other sequences I actually loved shooting was the Tandav sequence, with Shiamak Davar's choreography. What you see in the film is only half of what we shot. I think the film is already too long, so a lot of sequences have been shortened quite a bit,” says Kumar.

Praising the choreography, along with capturing powerful moments, he adds, “The Tandav sequence, in its full extent, was remarkable. There was a lot of energy in the choreography. The Tandav choreography was fabulous, and I had a ball moving the camera around very fast, sweeping it around with high energy. There was a lot of dynamism, which I loved capturing. I think we shot the sequence over a period of three days, and I had a great time.”