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Saumyananda Sahi’s cinema is not built on spectacle. It is built on memory, distance, observation, and time. Coming from a family of artists — a painter father and a dancer sister — he learned early that art is not about showing, but about feeling.
“I started taking photographs in school and learning darkroom techniques. The magic was always in watching light become emotion.”
A philosophy graduate from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a cinematography alumnus of FTII, Pune, Saumyananda’s visual language was shaped as much by thought as by technique.
He worked on documentaries, archived Nemai Ghosh’s documentation of Satyajit Ray’s films, and shot independent features like Sivapuranam and Nasir, even experimenting early with a Digital Bolex CCD camera.
“Those early films taught me that texture is not a defect. It’s a memory.”
Unlike many cinematographers who gravitate toward wide’s, Saumyananda has a deep emotional connection with longer focal lengths.
“I’m always drawn towards telephoto lenses. They create a strange kind of dynamism when the camera moves. The space compresses, but the emotion expands.”
BTS Photo by Kerry Monteen
“With tele lenses, movement becomes more dramatic, more internal. Even a small camera move starts to feel psychological.”
For him, telephoto is not about distance — it is about intimacy without intrusion.
“This story spans 15 years. I wanted the language of focus to change with time.”
Past: Deeper focus, more color, more visual complexity
Present: Shallower focus, cleaner whites, calmer frames
“I shot mostly between T2.8 and T4. I wanted the background to go out of focus but still have character. Cooke S7i gives a bokeh that feels alive.”
On night sequences: “I stayed with sodium vapor, tungsten, orange — but always grounded in reality.
“The Panchros don’t call attention to themselves. They have dignity.”
What he loved:
Beautifully rendered edges
Gentle warmth in highlights
Soft roll-off that never feels electronic
“The light spreads in a very human way.”
This is his personal favorite Cooke experience.
“The way the bokeh of these lenses changes around the edges of the frame really helps to draw the viewer’s eye into the frame, while rendering the surrounding background in a painterly rather than mechanical touch.”
BTS Photo by Kerry Monteen
“The flares, the sense of space, the way the image feels centered — it’s very emotional.”
“The space seems to breathe from the center of the frame.”
“Cooke lenses don’t try to impress. They try to understand. They don’t just resolve faces. They respect faces.”
“Across different formats and periods, Cooke always gave me an image that felt tactile and hand-made, giving the world it captures a sense of being ‘seen’ rather than merely captured.”
“Light is not decoration. Light is memory.”
In One Line:
Saumyananda Sahi doesn’t shoot images. He observes time.
Saumyananda Sahi | Director of Photography
