BJIFF: Indian film 'Fear' wins Tiantan Award for best cinematography

Published on 17-Apr-2019

Khushboo Razdan

"I am excited to get this DOP (director of production) award to Nikhil S Praveen, he truly deserves this award," said acclaimed Indian filmmaker Jayaraj in an exclusive interview with CGTN Digital after his film "Fear" won the prestigious Tiantan Award for best cinematography at the 9th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) in Beijing on Saturday.

Indian filmmaker Jayaraj (L) receives Tiantan Award for best cinematography for his film "Fear" from Iraninan filmmaker Majid Majidi (R) at the 9th Beijing International Film Festival in Beijing, April 20, 2019. /CGTN Photo

Set in the late 1930s, the movie tells the story of a WWI veteran who's now a distraught postman in a small Indian village. The ex-soldier is seen as a symbol of prosperity, delivering money and telegrams to soldiers' families, until the break of WWII, which ushers in his transformation to a messenger of death.

"My biggest challenge was to tell the story of war without showing war scenes or gunshots," Jayaraj told CGTN Digital.

Reflecting the character's shift, the entire movie is segregated into two color tones – joyous and colorful, and melancholic and black and white.

"Through the emotions alone, through the contribution of nature's emotions we have narrated the horrors of war. Before the war everything is colorful and bright but as the war begins everything in the village loses its color, everything turns dark, because there's fear, said Jayaraj, adding that "I think fear is the maximum level of human emotion and a war is the exact representation of fear because we are thinking about death – and death is the biggest fear," he said.

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