Manoj Pradhan, who happens to be the Director of Photography of BBC Worldwide’s Ek Boond Ishq, has been interested in two things- music and photography from his early days in the industry. In a talk with Tellychakkar.com, Pradhan narrates his journey about what drove him to become a cinematographer. A low-down: How did you evolve as a DOP? Hmm! Since I was in my teens, I was always interested in music and photography. And yes, if I had to choose anything apart from this, it would have taken me away from my passion. So I did a post graduation course wherein I specialized in cinematography, after which I took up a job (assistant cameraman) in Assam. In 1993, I came to Mumbai and got a chance to assist Kiran Devam for a short period of seven months. Then in 1999, I happened to work with Sayed Raja and also did a couple of feature films and ad shoots. Currently, I am doing Ek Boond Ishq. Did you face any hurdles? (pauses) No, not while evolving, but as it is like in this industry, you are as good as your last project and cannot afford to laze around; you have to deliver things under a given time frame with 100 per cent satisfactory results. Sometimes it so happens that production wise not all requirements are met. In serials, we get 13 to 14 minutes in which we need to generate our output. So you have to be perfect and on your toes constantly. Now tell us what is the most important thing in cinematography according to you? It is the camera movements that need to be precise, smooth and logical from the first frame to the last. The secondary factor is the lighting. Tell us something about any bad experience you have had? Yes, in the first project that I was doing, the camera that we had hired was not properly working and showed technical errors. This made me nervous to no extent. Since that was my first assignment, I always wondered what would happen next. Though it was not worse it was a bad experience indeed. How do you decide on what kind of cinematography needs to be undertaken for different shows? In my case it has always been a joint decision made by me and my director. In Ek Boond Ishq, I have made use of soft lighting. Anything that you would like to change in the Indian Television industry? I think the working environment needs to be elevated as there is too much of saturation of talent. Any personality trait that makes you excel at your work? I think one needs to be compassionate, friendly, to all your fellow workers. This is the quality that makes your work easier. Moreover, you should respect other departments too. What are the departments that cinematographers have to co-ordinate with? We work hand in hand with the art direction team, direction department (for the locations to be chosen) and the production department as we need to work on a given budget. What is the best thing being a DOP? It is a creative field! So when people have a word of praise for you, I feel satisfied. Your message to new aspirants? Work hard and follow the aesthetics.