Cinematographer Rathnavelu plans to turn director

Veteran cinematographer Rathnavelu has been a prominent name in the film industry for over two decades, having worked on blockbuster films such as Arya, Enthiran (“Robo”), Rangasthalam and Devara. He recently completed work on “Peddi” starring Ram Charan.

The acclaimed cinematographer has now revealed his long-standing ambition to become a director.

“Yes, I have always wanted to direct a film. I have already written three stories and would like to make an action thriller with strong emotional depth. I need to take some time away from my busy cinematography commitments and focus on developing the script. Hopefully, my directorial debut happens soon,” he said.

Rathnavelu also shared an interesting detail about Peddi, revealing that portions of the film were shot using traditional film negatives rather than digital cameras.

“My favorite portion in Peddi is the Delhi sequence. We shot those scenes without artificial lighting and used film negatives instead of digital cameras. After nearly 17 years, I got the opportunity to work with film negatives again. While modern digital cameras produce excellent results, we felt film negatives would bring a more authentic, raw and realistic texture to the journey,” he explained.