Nayakan, 1987
Director: Mani Ratnam

Even before Nayakan, I had tried some top lighting in my earlier films. Top light is used to enhance the atmosphere.

In Nayakan, I shifted the concept of pushing the key light on a different axis. For some time, actors did not have a clue about lights because I would light from unnatural areas. But artistes like Kamal Haasan grabbed such technicalities fast.

I tried to show Velu Naikar's evolution from a bachelor to a husband to a father and, finally, a powerful man through light. As he grew, the light axis slowly shifted.

I visited the slum in Mumbai's Dharavi where the man [Varadaraja Mudaliar], based on whose life the film was made, lived. He was alone when I met him. When I saw the room, the way he sat on the sofa-cum-bed, I had many pictures passing through my mind. That was when I decided on changing the axis of lighting.

I like expressing myself through light. I got the National award for Nayakan.