Sudeep Chatterjee

Sudeep Chatterjee is a well-known cinematographer in Bollywood. He was the man behind the camera for movies such as ‘ Chak De! India Click to look into! >> Read More... ’, ‘Iqbal’, ‘ Dhoom 3 Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ and ‘ Bajirao Mastani Click to look into! >> Read More... ’. Sudeep was born in the city of Kolkata in West Bengal. In his childhood, Sudeep always wanted to express and visualize art. His desire to visualize made him try a hand at painting but it didn’t work out for him. Later when he was in the 10th grade, Sudeep’s father gave him a camera as a gift.

Sudeep claims that the camera had helped him find himself and had finally found a way to fulfill his desire of expressing using visual arts. Even though young Sudeep couldn’t afford to get better cameras, he made the best out his camera. Seeing his passion for the camera, Sudeep’s father suggested that he join a cinema club where he could explore more about his passion.

As a student, Sudeep opted for pursuing a degree in engineering when his heart was still longing for the camera. Eight months after he started engineering, Sudeep decided to leave the course and pursue cinematography, his true passion. He applied at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and was selected in his first try. His journey in the institute had given him a whole new outlook towards cinematography.

He found and realized that there was more to cinematography than just visualizing. He learnt a lot of new techniques and accepts that he does whenever he can to learn about to new techniques even after becoming a successful cinematographer. After doing many advertisements and feature films, Sudeep was approached by Ram Gopal Verma and asked him to do cinematography for his film ‘Road’, which was Sudeep’s first film.

His work for Chak De! India was almost entirely done handheld. He received a lot of discouragement for doing so but he believed in his abilities which helped him bag four different awards for the film. He got married to Moumita Chatterjee and lives with her in Mumbai with their children Ishaan and Ishika.