Banaras, like Kashi, celebrates life and death: Advaitha Gurumurthy

Floods, fog and extreme cold… but despite it all, cinematographer Advaitha Gurumurthy had the time of his life shooting for Banaras, which is shot mostly in Kashi.
Directed by Jayathirtha, the movie has Zaid Khan and Sonal Monteiro in lead roles and will release on November 4.
Advaitha says, “The Banaras journey has been amazing. Firstly, when we went to finalise locations, we got stuck in the floods as we were staying close to the river. We had to be rescued. We then decided to shoot between November and December.”
“There are as many as 64 ghats in Kashi, each with a historical significance. It celebrates life and death which suits the narration of the story and is one reason why we shot in Kashi.”

Speaking about the shooting experience, he said: “We have shot action sequences and songs against the backdrop of Kashi from angles that no other film has portrayed before. The team had to brave the fog and cold wave as the temperature hovered between two and three degrees. Due to the severe cold, we had to return mid-way and complete action sequences when the temperature was normal. We could shoot just four to five hours a day. We used to travel in boats from one spot to another which was a tough.”
On working with Jayathirtha, he shares, “We both have a theatre background, so we understand each other and are on the same wavelength, which makes it easy. We are both foodies and have tasted every street food available. And we would sing theatre songs while travelling on boats.”