Cinematographer Polly Morgan has worked with the best of directors across the globe and has been waiting for an excuse to travel to India.
So, when she got an offer to work for the Bollywood film Ghanchakkar, she didn’t think twice. She’s going to work on two music videos in the film, titled Jholuraam and Lo Karlo Baat.
Polly has been in Mumbai for a while now and she’s finding every moment in India not only enjoyable but challenging as well. She took some time off to chat with Metrolife about what prompted her to come to India and her experience of shooting on the sets.
Polly has worked for six years as a camera assistant with cinematographers such as Caleb Deschanel, Bojan Bazelli, Dan Mindel and Haris Zambarloukos and in her spare time, she also worked with and was mentored by Wally Pfister. In fact, she even assisted him during ‘Inception’.
She terms her experience on the sets of the film as ‘uplifting and very ‘colourful’. “The people here are energetic and willing to work in whatever situation they’re in. You never find anyone grumbling. They’re all content with whatever they have,” she says.
Talking about Ghanchakkar, Polly explains that it is about a guy who has lost his memory and yet finds the right track. Having worked on various sets, does she find the Indian film sets too chaotic? “Back home, there would be pin-drop silence on the sets. It’s not as noisy as it is here. It’s interesting to watch the way people work around here. There is a lot more participation and enthusiasm,” Polly notes.
As a woman working in a largely male-dominated field, Polly feels she is always confronted with the challenge of excelling in her job. “I think people have been very kind to me. It is only when I started working in India that I realised that I was in a comfort zone back home. Here, I have to work very hard to understand the way of things,” she states.
Polly says that getting behind the camera is a dream come true for her.
“As a child, I always played around with a camera and spent most of my time in a film unit. I was always fascinated by the camera and the way it was operated,” she recollects.
Polly is not very fussy when it comes to food, especially Indian food. “I love the dal-roti combination and I hope to try as many authentic Indian dishes as I can, before I head back home,” she
signs off.
