Raj Thota is an Indian

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

who works in

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

. He received praise for the film '' Arjun Reddy''.

Early life

Raj was born in the Kasarabad village, grew up in Suryapet, Nalgonda,

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

, and moved to

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. He was very enthusiastic in building teams to play village-level

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and kabaddi, from a very young age. His mother, Mani Thota, is a house wife, while his father, the late Venkat Thota, was a makeup artist for Telugu films, mainly doing make-up for Mohan Babu. He showed keen interest in photography since an early age.

Career

Early years and it Follows (2000-2014)

Raj’s father Venkat Thota was a make up artist with Mohan Babu and Raj used to accompany his father to the sets during holidays. It was during those visits Raj thought that the director, cinematographer, and lead actors are the only people, who were busy and running hither and thither. So, he decided to choose among these three crafts, and ultimately chose to be a cinematographer. He expressed his desire to his father and joined his colleague, T. Surendra Reddy, a cinematographer, where he worked for different genres of films for several years, including Hindi films directed by Mani Shankar, in Hyderabad. Later, he worked under DOP Mohana Krishna, as an assistant, in Hindi films, such as '' Ishqiya'', '' R... Rajkumar'', '' Do Lafzon Ki Kahani'', and '' Force 2''. He also worked in several commercials, as a second unit cameraman. He later did a lot of ‘clash work’ for fellow cinematographer, Sai Sriram, for his films, when he was not available to shoot. These included '' Geethanjali'', '' Ra Ra... Krishnayya'', and '' Cinema Choopistha Mava''. He also did the same for '' Pellichoopulu''. In 2016, director Sandeep Vanga gave him the opportunity to debut as the cinematographer for Vijay Devarakonda's film '' Arjun Reddy'', which was a huge runaway hit, the winner of the Best Actor in the 65th Filmfare Awards South and Santhosham Award, to the best debut cinematographer. His later films were '' Needi Naadi Oke Katha'' in 2018 and '' Husharu'' in 2019. Raj was hired by director Puri Jagannadh to be the DOP for the action film, '' iSmart Shankar''.

''Arjun Reddy''

Raj made his debut as cinematographer with the movie, ''Arjun Reddy''. For the 4 min single shot of following an actor from exterior to interior Raj Practised with Gimbal rig for one full day before executing the shot. Shots of the Bike sequence shot with Gimbal rig and close ups in Arjun Reddy were well appreciated.

Continued success (2017–present)

After finishing ''Arjun Reddy'', Raj was hired to shoot director Venu Udugula's (in his directorial debut) 2018 film ''Needi Naadi Oke Katha''. Venu and Raj decided to adapt Dogme 95 school of thought. (The rules to create film making based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was an attempt to take back power for the director as artist as opposed to the studio) Raj had to device lengthy shots, candid style and more of an available light style, with limited crew adhering to Dogme 95 school of thought. He collaborated with Producer Bekkam Venugopal to shoot ''Husharu'' much before ''Needi Naadi Oke Katha'' being theatrically released in both the Telugu states on 23 March 2018. In ''Husharu'' film for Undiporaadey pathos version song, he designed a Body rig to be mounted on actors to get the particular mood of the song.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thota, Raj People from Nalgonda Living people Cinematographers from Telangana Telugu film cinematographers Year of birth missing (living people)