What made Taare Zameen Par an enriching experience?
There are several things that made Taare... memorable. However, working with kids made it a knock-out one. Technically speaking, it is quite challenging to work with children. There can’t be shot after shot and then a perfect shot that is finalised. One has to be all eyes and ears to capture the perfect moment. One has to be extremely spontaneous so as to not miss a crucial expression that almost flitted by you.

Besides children, was there anything that made Taare... different
Yes. For me Taare... showed how a simple tale told simply but sensitively can make a difference.

How did cinematography happen to you?
I grew up in a creative atmosphere. My uncle Ranjan Palit and aunt Vasudha Joshi are documentary film-makers in Kolkata. They got me initiated into camera-work in movies. Anyway, I had always loved photography and took to cinematography readily.

You had planned to jam with a local band in Kolkata recently?
(Laughs) Yes, I did. But the plan fell through as I was down with a sore throat. My friend Sumit had this band called Easy Riders long back. This goes back to my school and college days in St Xavier’s College, Kolkata. So, was planning to get old things going. But it turned out otherwise.

So does the camera have competition from music?
I have always loved music. And as I was born and brought up in Kolkata, given the culturally-rich city that it is, music did to some extent become a part of me. Then again I grew up in a family which had serious patrons of music. My mother is trained in classical music and my grandmother used to play the sitar. And these were no passing the interests. My father used to encourage me to listen to a lot of diverse genres of music. From Hindustani classical to Nat King Cole, Beatles etc.

So, what’s up your sleeves next?
I am in talks with some production houses. And I will busy with some more documentaries.

Do documentaries remain your first love then?
It is difficult to say so, but yes there’s immense creative satisfaction in shooting documentaries. There’s a certain edge in shooting them. I love the spontaneity, the one-to-one interaction with characters and spaces that is involved in making a documentary. It feels more real, more natural than fiction based films.