TRYST WITH THE LENS

The man behind “The Wedding Filmer”, Vishal Punjabi has mastered the art of telling stories in 25 frames per second. And now he’s ready to let you in on the magic as well.

“Nothing is ever lost to us, as long as we remember it.” Your words truly embody the art of creating memories. So tell us, how did the idea of “The Wedding Filmer” was born?

My childhood dream was to work in films. I always wanted to work in movies. I worked with Shah Rukh Khan from 2001 to 2010, and that’s the only company I’ve ever actually worked with. Everything I’ve learnt from films or advertising, I learnt while working there. I started working with Santosh Sivan on his first film Asoka. I worked with Farah Khan on her first film. I was getting married and I really could not afford to get a videographer for my wedding. I decided to shoot it myself with some help from my cinematographer friends. I figured nobody else could shoot it the way I could. And nobody would understand it the way I would, and that is how “The Wedding Filmer” was born.

In the time of such technological advancements, how do you perceive the shift from pictures to videos as the main souvenir of a wedding?

Some tell stories on papers, some through photographs, and us, we tell stories in 25 frames per second. The exciting thing about filmmaking is the use of sound and music to bring to life, not just a beautiful, moving shot, but also the audio of your memory. A picture is a moment frozen in time, but every great film has a gripping beginning, an engaging middle and climactic end which allows us to not just look at, but also relive and appreciate what we went through.

What’s it like shooting celebrity weddings? And how different is it from shooting a regular wedding?