Cinematographer Advaitha Gurumurthy brings back Vintage LOMOs

The lens that were used in Rajkumar’s films makes its way back to Kannada cinema with the Shivarajkumar-Dhananjaya starrer ‘666 Operation Dream Theatre’

Bengaluru: Hemanth M Rao’s ‘666 Operation Dream Theatre’ brings back the Vintage LOMO lenses that were used in Rajkumar films, according to a press note.

The lenses which were introduced between 1970 and 1980 were used in Rajkumar’s movies. “The team travelled to Chennai, Mumbai, and has had multiple checks in Bengaluru to finalise the lens,” said the press note.

The retro spy thriller stars Shivarajkumar and Daali Dhananjaya in the lead roles. The makers earlier released the first look of both the actors — they donned polka dot shirts and bell-bottom pants, and chequered three-piece suits. As an extension to the film’s retro aspect, they have now brought in vintage lenses.

In the press note, Advaitha Gurumurthy, the film’s cinematographer, is quoted as saying, “For ‘666 Operation Dream Theatre’, we wanted a very distinct look that could give us an authentic feel of Rajkumar’s bond film series from the 1970s. We did not want to rely on the post production entirely to create it. So right from using a lot of vintage tungsten lights to vintage lenses we wanted things to unfold on the camera while shooting.”

After testing and grading test footage across 16 different lens sets, the team chose the Vintage LOMO anamorphics and LOMO spherical lenses.

“They are prized for their organic flares, painterly fall-off, and imperfect beauty and that is exactly what we were looking for,” the press statement says.

The film is produced by Dr Vaishak J Gowda, under his banner Vaishak J Films. Charan Raj is the music composer and Vishwas Kashyap, the production designer. It will be released in Telugu and Kannada.