Cinematographer Nagesh Banell might have made mistakes but he is not afraid of admitting it. He is a quick learner and believes that if one has the talent, the person will definitely succeed. Banella is his surname but he changed it and there is a small story behind it. To put it in a nutshell, director Tarun Bhasckar’s father was a numerologist and on his advice, he became Nagesh Bannel. This happened during his salad days, i.e even before Pelli Chupulu released.
Born in a farmer’s family in a village called Konidela in Kurnool, Nagesh showed his inclination to learn technical aspects of film making and quickly moved to the film industry. After working for two or three films, he became an associate cinematographer. He began his career with short films and assisted in lighting etc in Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media. “Rana came up with this company and that was the time DI was at the initial stages, everything was expensive. I worked in the post production department too, gathered as much knowledge as I can before Spirit Media was given away to Prime Focus. Armed with that knowledge I went to Mumbai,” he says.Nagesh is supportive of students graduating from a film school and says they have an advantage of having a degree or a diploma and that helps in gaining an entry into a film studio. Also they have access to books and are constantly updating their technical knowledge. While in Hyderabad he had the fortune of getting to know Kiran Reddy (who along with Prakash Rao made a film A Belly Full Of Dreams), ad filmmaker Vikas Sivaraman and Ravi Yadav and values the association. In Mumbai, while working on DI, he learnt the difference between Indian and world cinema and began appreciating and learnt many things. He however says Mumbai isn’t the place for him and the culture didn’t suit him, and was more drawn towards the open spaces in Hyderabad. “I am from a village and I couldn’t think of living my entire life in a small space and a commercial atmosphere of Mumbai,” he quips.
Even while he was in Mumbai, he simultaneously worked with Vinootna Geetha, Tarun Bhasckar’s banner. “I was the senior in the team and they didn’t know much about films and its background. I was working with Tejas Kancherla who is now an actor and was Tarun Bhasckar’s classmate. The duo planned a demo and next they were trying to make a short film. We liked each other’s work and Sainma took off. Sainma was shot in two and a half days in rupees one lakh. That was the last short film I worked with Tarun, before that we did four or five short films; on and off it was a six year association with him. In Mumbai I would get paid, but here I didn’t talk of payment at all but the kick I got from working on this project was something incredible and I can never forget that. I would be completely charged and full of energy,” he adds.According to Nagesh, one short film Indira didn’t release; they worked on it for twelve days and also in the night. It was one of the best phases in his life when he worked for Vinootha Geetha. They would go and test any new digital camera that came in the market and he recollects Tarun posting an overwhelming line on him on his social media handle. “Tarun said, Nagesh is like my brother, I had learnt more from him then I would in a film school. It was like an award to me. I value those days when I would work with him during weekends or schedule breaks,” he quips. He further says, “Tarun was the only son to his parents but we all got the same treatment.They provided us everything and gave us their complete support. I met Rahul Ramakrishna during Sainma and after seeing his output, I introduced him to Jayammu Nischayammu Ra team and he bagged the film. I was the DoP in that movie and that was my first project. After sixty percent of Jayammu Nischayammu Ra was shot, Pelli Chupulu went on floors. I introduced Rahul to Sandeep Reddy Vanga as well whose film Arjun Reddy was to begin. I wrapped up Pelli Chupulu and moved on to Arjun Reddy.”
Nagesh is a tad sad recollecting his work during the shoot of Arjun Reddy. He worked as a DoP for around 45 percent of the film and came out. He shares, “The film is a hit, I certainly lost out on it but it made me more stubborn in a positive way to learn things and excel. A cinematographer is a man who works the most and gets tired physically and mentally. There is no scope to even sit for a minute and mentally we are occupied in framing the scenes. Sandeep Reddy was the producer as well as the director of the movie, he had some family issues and there was a small misunderstanding. I still feel I haven’t done anything wrong and when I left I told Vijay that I am not dropping out and in case Sandeep calls me, I would be available. If some character is rough in the team, we have to deal with it. Had I been patient, things would have been different now. Every project has such problems but people involved are different, once it is the producer, then a director, then someone else. It is about HR management.”After Arjun Reddy, Nagesh went on to do Fashion Designer which was a complete miscalculation. He says, “I saw his earlier films like Anveshana and Ladies Tailor and I thought he had a grip on village stories. Story is the minus point of the film, it has a déjà vu feel to it.” He followed Fashion Designer with Pressure Cooker and Akshara. Akshara is about social causes, it is about competitive exams and the mode of study. He signs off, “Earlier students would have playgrounds which is a lung space. Now they study in buildings and the rooms are like small boxes and education has been commercialised with ranks being advertised.” Akshara is the title role played by Nanditha Swetha. While Merise Merise is ready for release, he will be soon doing a project with Raj Tarun to be made by Annapurna Studios and directed by Srinivas Gavireddy. There is a lot of work in the movie market, the technicians get to listen to five scripts every week. There is scope for a lot of films to be made for streaming platforms as well as the screen he claims.
