He still remembers the first time, as a young school boy, when he saw a roll of film being dipped into chemical solution -- as the images unfolded, he felt a chill crawl up his spine. "That was my first brush with the magic of photography," recalls ace ad-film cinematographer Vikas Sivaraman. And from that day on, he set his focus firmly on the camera. From courses in photography to assisting Prahlad Kakkar ("He took care of my tuition and hostel fees by way of remuneration"), it is no wonder then that the 39-year-old has left a definite print on the world of advertising. From Coke and Thums Up, to Raymond's, Scabal and Liril, he has shot them all. Then, he trained his eye on the silver screen and last fortnight, Sarfarosh, his first feature film, finally hit the big screen, after a 10-year wait fromthe time he signed Manmohan Desai's Anmol -- a project he opted out of.

While working on Sarfarosh, however, he had to substitute advertising gloss for grim reality. "John -- whom I know from the time both of us were at the boondocks end of film making -- was looking to tread the thin fence between a stark, unpallatable picture and an overly glossy one." And yet, treading that line was not the only problem Vikas had to contend with. While he has never taken more than 10 days to shoot a film, he had to put in three years on Sarfarosh. "It is tough to sustain your involvement for that long -- there's a danger you might fall asleep. Besides, it's very difficult to stay close to detail because of the larger-than-life canvas. In the end, it was a hard fought battle -- the film still has its rough edges."