Nagesh Banell on ‘Masooda’: Every horror movie need not be dark and brooding

Cinematographer Nagesh Banell discusses the visual palette of the recent Telugu horror movie ‘Masooda’

Nagesh Banell, cinematographer of the recent Telugu horror drama Masooda, recalls the after-effects of watching Darren Aranofsky’s psychological drama Requiem for a Dream. “I watched it during the day, at home, and soon after I stepped out to the balcony to take in some sunlight,” he says while explaining how the screenplay, the characters and the moody setting made it a disturbing watch. He mentions this while explaining how he wanted Masooda’s visual palette to stand out. He, debut director Sai Kiran and producer Rahul Yadav wanted to dispel the notion that horror dramas are best filmed during the dark and instead, used the daytime setting to gradually build fear.

It has been more than a week since Masooda hit theatres and word-of-mouth publicity has worked to the advantage of the slow-burn horror drama. Nagesh picks the 1980s Telugu horror movie Kashmora as one of his favourites. However, he did not revisit any of his favourite horror movies, in Telugu as well as in other languages, while working on Masooda, to avoid any influences.

“Nine out of 10 horror films are shot in a particular style. Occasionally a film like It (a 2017 American supernatural horror film) comes with a distinctive style. We wanted Masooda to look midway between a regular Telugu drama and a dark, moody horror film. I spent more than two and a half months working on the digital intermediate during post-production to get the desired visual textures,” says Nagesh.

In the initial portions, the colour palette remains muted barring occasional bursts of red — cardigans worn by actors Sangitha, Bandhavi or the colour of a refrigerator door — to hint at the subsequent gory turn of events. Nagesh says it was intentional.

Nagesh, the director and the production design team worked out the finer details during pre-production. “During our first meeting, Sai Kiran gave me the script that had a detailed plan for the opening sequence that happens in the sugarcane fields, which establishes the mood of fear. This was the first sequence we filmed. I got to work with a team that was driven by a passion for filmmaking and that helped in the quality of the output.”

When Nagesh entered the industry more than a decade ago, he looked up the work of cinematographer-directors Balu Mahendra and P C Sreeram to understand how they used natural and additional lighting. “In the 1980s, there was the tendency to use hot artificial light sources; it would overpower the frames. When I worked as an assistant cinematographer, I would listen to my seniors discussing how, back then, Balu Mahendra sir used ambient and additional lights to arrive at a natural look. His Nireekshana (1986) is my favourite. I also liked how V S R Swami made the frames stand out even in mainstream mass movies like Samarasimha Reddy.”

Reverting to Masooda, he says it was a case of different aspects of filmmaking coming together into a cohesive whole. In the later portions, when the story of the character Masooda is revealed, Nagesh wanted a gradual transition from a happy family in the village to gloomy and moody lighting. Masooda is depicted as evil and the story does not make excuses for her behaviour. When Thiruveer and Sangitha’s characters are desperately taking up remedial measures in the forest, the events unfold on a moonlit night. Nagesh says he tried to make the lighting appear as natural as possible. The sequences that happen in a dilapidated building, he reveals, were filmed in three locations, “We found an old building in Karimnagar and shot the exteriors; the corridor and the hall belong to other buildings. The shot divisions and lighting were planned such that the visuals appear seamless.”