We spoke to Krishna Perla about his journey from being a dancer to becoming a videographer/cinematographer professionally. Read further to gain his insights on how opportunities should not be taken advantage of.
Since you used to be a dancer yourself, how and when did you decide to pursue cinematography/videography professionally?
I started off with my camera when I was in college. I made a few college projects here and there. In addition, when I used to dance, I used to record our dancing videos, and workshop videos. Some people approached me to shoot their videos. One day, I left dancing/assisting due to unavoidable circumstances. I realised that I got more projects to shoot dance videos than to choreograph. I figured, since I seem to be able to do this well, why not make a career out of it?
I kept going on and my love for the camera increased immensely as I kept working and today I’m very happy to call myself a cinematographer and video editor.
What kind of work do you do, and how do you think your professional language has grown over the years?
So as I mentioned in the previous question, I started off doing dance videos. People liked my work and I kept getting different types of dance videos to shoot, some basic and some concept-based. One day I got a call from a director saying he liked my gimbal work and that he wanted to use it in one of his ad films. That project, in which I shot Kangana Ranaut for Live Fashion, became my first ad film. I was thrilled to see my work on a big platform; it was huge for me. Then I travelled to shoot a dance battle event called ‘Bacardi Breezer Vivid Shuffle’, and also worked on a few food/travel shows for Living Foodz.
Eventually, I started assisting with music videos. I worked on several of them and continue to do so. Despite being in this professionally, I have made mistakes because after all, I am only human. I try to look back and learn from them as much as possible and try not to repeat them and that is where I think I have grown.
What are you current projects? What has been your favourite one so far and why?
I have mainly been working on a lot of music videos and a few ad films. My favourite projects that I’ve been a part of so far has to be Rafu, a Marathi short film that I shot and produced with my trusted friend Rahul Suryavanshi, a director and writer. We have been sending it to film festivals and been receiving a good response. We even won at a few festivals under different categories, which has been unbelievable. The exciting part is, it will soon be available for everyone to watch on an OTT platform.
Could you share a few tips with aspiring cinematographer/videographers that they can follow in order to make their process easier?
I would say, just follow what your heart says. Experience as much as you can in terms of camera work and lighting. Don’t reject many projects so that you get as much experience as possible and learn as much as possible. Sometimes, overthinking whether or not to do a project can make the process weaker. There is so much this profession can offer and there is so much that you can do with it, so don’t be afraid to plunge deep into it!
