Binod Pradhan - Biography

Biography

Binod grew up in the picturesque hill town of Kalimpong in Darjeeling. Coming from a humble background, Binod got his first box camera in the early years from his father, H. K. Pradhan, who ran a photo studio. The love affair with camera started from thereon. Binod would shoot black-and-white pictures and try and colour them using water-paints. He was often caught shooting unknown portraits and making prints of them. Displeased at first, his father recognized his work and most of Binod's images landed up on the display case of the studio and he was rewarded with an Asahi Pentax. Binod and his camera were pretty much inseparable and by the age of 14, he was running things at the studio.

Soon found the isolated life at Kalimpong was a hindrance for taking up photography as a career option. There was no formal forum to learn new techniques and share his experience. On hearing about FTII in Pune, he approached the institute with his portfolio and was admitted into a three-year course in cinematography.

The break into films came when film director Prem Sagar came to the institute to judge the students' work. Impressed with Binod's work, Prem Sagar immediately offered him the job of an assistant at Sagar Arts. He went on to assist Prem Sagar on the Dharam-Hema Malini starrers, Charas and Ram Bharose. Realizing that he was not making his identity in the huge industry, he started looking at other options. Ace cameraman A K Bir, who was working on a film Gharonda offered him the job of assistant cameraman, in charge of the zoom and focus department. This proved to be a very useful internship.

Work soon dried up and he often found himself changing addresses very often. Few sporadic assignments like documentaries (for Durga Khote productions), ads and corporate films helped improve his technical skills.

During this period, he lived with a Kutchi family and this was when he met Dolly. He fell in love with Dolly, and was unable to convince her parents. Resorting to desperate measures, he eloped with her back to Kalimpong. They soon had their first-born, Binay. Out-of-work Binod devoted himself completely to raising him.

Slowly, old friends approached him with work assignments. He worked with Mani Kaul on the celluloid version of Ghashiram Kotwal and did Jabbar Patel's Jait Re Jait. The Assamese film Apa Roopa happened then.

The dry spell finally broke when Kundan Shah started gathering all his mates from FTII for the film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. This film went on to reach cult status.