A delectable cameraman of Kannada cinema Santosh Rai Pathaje is sitting pretty on all fronts today. That is because of his right eye for the camera working tremendously. Starting from ‘7 O Clock’ a medium budget cinema to ‘Lakshmana’ Pathaje stepped in to the new path and attained the right results. He is of course pride of Kannada cinema with two films as director. He is heading for third film as director in a very short span of time. His earlier two directorial ventures are ‘7 O Clock’ and ‘Savi Savi Nenapu’.

A rare kind of cameraman has ventured to a different kind of cinema ‘Chowka’ in which he is one of the five cameramen of Dwarakish Chitra 50th production. The other cameramen are Sathya Hegde, S Krishna, Shekar Chandru and Sudhakar. Interestingly there is one more cameraman for the climax of ‘Chowka’. Apparently VK Prakash for ‘Aidondla Aidu’ tried similar type of roping in five cameramen.

From the pages of his life experience Santosh Rai Pathaje feels more the luxury a cameraman becomes lazy. It is only in ad film making luxury is given and also the similar result is expected. In cinema it is not like that he observes.

According to him it is in the capacity of cameraman to show the beauty of any spot. A Bengaluru Palace is already beautiful. There is no point in showing it magnificent. If you capture hustle bustle ‘Chickpet’ area and give the real beauty it is something challenging. As of now the normal audiences have started identifying the camera work. The digital revolution is like that. For a cameraman it is easy to work and he should go along with the technology that is growing rapidly. In the days of negative the stock was limited and for one camera four rolls a day and its processing was heavy. Now with the same cost one full film is possible. The possibility of showing abstract images is also more today. Compared to negatives the savings with digital conquering the entire country forty percent is the saving for the producer opines Santosh Rai Pathaje.

Working in home land is better than working in Telugu films. Santosh Rai Pathaje says work for one film extends to one year. The peak summer means it is very difficult. The stars do not come out to shoot. I have worked for two Telugu films and later felt the need of working in Kannada. The weather, options and people is added advantage. On the remuneration part it may be a little less. We have a film in six months in Kannada. We get everything that is asked in Telugu films.

On his work in ad films Pathaje says there is no need to go to Mumbai today. The atmosphere here has brought ad film makers to work in Karnataka. It is of course good money and good work too he smiles.