Jagadish Gowda: ‘Capturing beautiful moments with powerful visuals’

Award-winning cinematographer, Jagdish Gowda, looks froward to the release of the Kannada film Maarige Daari

The teaser of the film, Maarige Daari, garnered over 1.6 lakh views a few days after its release on YouTube. Directed by Agastya, who has also written the story and screenplay, it is the cinematography by Jagdish Gowda that has become the talk of the town.

The two-minute teaser keeps you hooked with its brilliant play of fire, light and dancing sparks, creating visuals that stay on in your mind for long. Jagdish, who is also the editor, says that describes his craft. “Cinematography is about capturing beautiful moments with powerful visuals.”

Cinema is not new to the self-taught cinematographer-editor. Jagdish, started his cinematic journey with the short film Karta, directed by Partha Sarathy and released under the banner Mathana films. “I directed a short film, Royal in 2016 and was not happy with the cinematography. That is when I started researching and studying anything and everything to do with cinematography to see why the visuals I had in mind were not recreated on the screen.”

That is when Jagadish discovered that his strength lay in cinematography and editing. “In 2018, when a group of friends and I decided to make Karta, I took the plunge, editing and shooting the film.” Unlike most editors or cinematographers, Jagdish feels the two disciplines compliment each other. “You know what you want from both perspectives, which makes the work process easier and shorter.”

Karta, a thriller, had a successful stint on the festival circuit and won awards including the BMW India’s Best cinematographer award, Best cinematographer award at the Praguni Short Film Festival and National Short Film Festival. Karta was also the official selection at the International Short Film Festival SIIMA.

“ In 2020, we released the film on YouTube.” Jagdish, a B.Com graduate from Bengaluru’s Vijaya College, is awaiting the release of Maarige Daari, which is in post production and working as a cinematographer for Pajjala, directed by Bhairava Bansi and produced by Sukesh KC.

Jagadish does not see a difference between short films and full length features. “Short films opened the door for me into feature films. The same amount of effort and passion go into both mediums, irrespective of the duration of the film.”