Probashi- Cover Story
Probashi- Cover Story
Excerpts from Production Controller’ s Diary
Excerpts from the Diary of a Film Production Controller
Suarjit Dasgupta is the CEO of the Kolkata based SDG
Films whichh provides film management services for both documentary and feature films. In his
22 year long career with the film industry as production controller, Surajit has been involved with some of the top directors ncluding Goutam Ghose, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Sandip Roy, Vikram Singh, RS Ravindran, Bappa Ray, Lambarto Lmabertini, Patrick Glaize, Debabrata Pyne and others. Till date he has handledd more than 35 feature films, at least 25 documentaries and more than 1000 episodes of TV Serials and Corporate
Advt films. Surajit’ s job involves the complete gamut of management of film shooting‐ help draw contracts for the actors and technicians
, hiring equipment, budgeting, location scouting, logisticss of outdoor shoots, discussion with the studio, financial management of the entire shooting of the film, coordination of the post production work and getting the Censor certificate.
The film bug had bitten Surajit right from his student days. He was an active member of film societies in Kolkata, seeing and discussing films was a passion. With a brilliant academic record Surojit soon found himself in a cushy job with Kelvinator India Ltd. His interest in films however continued unabated, fuelled further by a college senior who used to work in films and would relate his experience to Surajit. And one day at the spur of the moment, Surajit decided to convert his passion into his profession, and walked into a film company asking for a job. Untrained in film making
, the initial days were spent working for free and learning about film making. His family was his bedrock, who allowed their son to indulge into what he liked best while providing the required financial support. Today Surajit is one of the most sought after production controller in the Bengali film industry
. Yes professional success has also brought in its financial rewards, but for him money does not seem to be the driver. Out of 35 feature films he has been Production Controller for, 18 feature films got National Awards in different categories, and so did 15 documentaries. It is the euphoria of being part of another national award win is what keeps Surajit going. Incidentally if you happen to see
Goutam Ghosh’ s latest release Shunyo Awynko keep a look out for Surajit, he has a small acting part in the film. Who said Production Controllers only work behind the screen!
7 May 2013: Today saw the film Shobdo at Bioscope Multiplex, liked the film. Shobdo is the story of Tarok, a Foley artist, whose job is to give background noises like footsteps, squeaky doors and breaking glass etc. to film sequences. This brought back memories of my early days in the industry when there were no specialised Foley artists, and we in the production team would create the Foley sounds in the recording studio using a number of improvisations. I remember this scene of wild elephant frolicking in a pond for which I and the film editor had to give the splashing and stomping sound made by the elephants. We hired two large boat shaped pans from a nearby tent house. The pans were filled with water and we pulled up our trousers and starting plodding in the water. My editor who had a larger body frame was the big elephant and me the small one.
The sound we recorded mimicked the sound which elephants had made in the wild. Then there was this documentary by Goutam Ghose on the silk route
, it had shots of horses trotting and my job was to reproduce the same sound in the studio. So I brought two coconut shells from home and in sync with the trot in the film
, would hit the shells on the studio floor and the sound so produced mimicked well the clicking of horse hoofs. We recorded the sound and used it in the film. My biggest challenge was to do Foley for the breaking of banks by a flooded river for the film Padma Nadir Majhi. I brought in moist clay blocks and hit them on the floor with all the strength I could muster and recorded the sound; the track was used in the film.