#IFFIWood, 25 November 2025

Through the Lens: Crafting Emotion in Every Frame unfolded as an intimate interactive session that brought cinematographer Ravi Varman and moderator Filmmaker Sanjeev Sivan into a room alive with curiosity. What emerged was not merely a lesson in techniques, but a journey into the instincts, memories, and quiet battles that shape Varman’s visual world. Speaking with disarming honesty, he traced the path from his earliest struggles to the artistry that now defines his frames, reminding the audience that every image carries both a craft and a life behind it.

Ravi Varman began with a revelation rooted in identity. He spoke of shortening his long name and choosing to carry only “Varman,” a word he associates with being a fighter. Growing up, people often teased him for sharing a name with a great painter, but years later, a child told him that one of his frames looked like a Ravi Varma painting, an unexpected validation that has stayed with him till date. Criticism, he said, never wounded him; it only strengthened his resolve to create better.

His beginnings were marked by hardship. A seventh-grade dropout, he arrived in Chennai with uncertainty as his only companion. He bought his first camera for ₹130, not out of artistic ambition, but simply to survive. The dream of cinematography grew slowly, shaped by circumstances. His aspiration to join the American Society of Cinematographers emerged later, taking shape naturally as he grew in the craft. In 2022, he achieved it, a milestone that reflected steady effort, discipline, and commitment to his work.

His path into cinema was far from scripted. When he arrived in Chennai, filmmaking was not the dream, survival was. He often slept near railway stations and his observations of the world around him was marked by necessity more than training. Long walks to school, the glow of trains slicing through the dawn, the people he watched working through their daily routines, all became the first seeds of his visual sensibility. Tolstoy’s War and Peace stirred his imagination, inspiring a war sequence in Ponniyin Selvan. The colours of Madurai Holi shaped Holi scenes in Ramleela. The gentle morning light he loved, softened scenes in Barfi.

As the session progressed, Ravi Varman spoke of light not as a tool but as an emotional compass. “There is no bad light,” he said. “Only the mind decides.” For him, consistency in lighting is born not from control but from reading the script until it reveals its inner temperature. Shadow, he explained, is not absence but mood; half his frames rest inside it. Technical choices come to him spontaneously, shaped by instinct, rather than overthinking. Even in high-pressure shoots, he refuses to let stress bend the frame.

He spoke of collaboration as a space of honesty, not conflict, explaining that the conversations he has with directors and art departments are centered on protecting the integrity of the frame. Whatever tensions arise in the process, he said, must never leave a mark on the image. “I will be gone one day, but my frames will remain,” he reflected.

Lighting, for him, is an intuitive dialogue. He spoke of how he often turns to natural light first, trusting its honesty and unpredictability, and how even in larger productions he prefers to work with what the sun, the morning, or a simple window offers before adding anything else. Whether he uses daylight, candlelight, or a carefully recreated dawn, each choice is guided by purpose rather than technical display. On the subject of AI, his clarity was firm: the human mind guides the tool, not the other way around. AI, he said, may create support systems, but it cannot rule creativity. Thought and instinct comes first  and every visual is ultimately shaped by the cinematographer’s own imagination and way of seeing.

The session reached its emotional crest when he spoke of women, particularly his mother, whose simplicity and strength continues to guide how he portrays women on screen. He credited both his mother and wife for the way they have grounded his journey, reminding the audience that behind every image lies a life shaped by love and endurance. By the time the session came to its close, rather than being a conversation it became a reflection on how art grows out of resilience, memory, and the courage to see beauty even in the hardest light.

About IFFI

Born in 1952, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) stands tall as South Asia’s oldest and largest celebration of cinema. Jointly hosted by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India and the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), State Government of Goa, the festival has grown into a global cinematic powerhouse—where restored classics meet bold experiments, and legendary maestros share space with fearless first-timers. What makes IFFI truly sparkle is its electric mix—international competitions, cultural showcases, masterclasses, tributes, and the high-energy WAVES Film Bazaar, where ideas, deals and collaborations take flight. Staged against Goa’s stunning coastal backdrop from November 20–28, the 56th edition promises a dazzling spectrum of languages, genres, innovations, and voices—an immersive celebration of India’s creative brilliance on the world stage.

For more information, click on:

IFFI Website: https://www.iffigoa.org/

PIB’s IFFI Microsite: https://www.pib.gov.in/iffi/56/

PIB IFFIWood Broadcast Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEiBaML2AU6gnzWOm3F

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PIB IFFI CAST AND CREW | Ritu Shukla/Santhosh Venkataraman/Nikhitha A S/Darshana Rane | IFFI 56 - 073