Alpesh Nagar from Udaipur has made the city proud after he bagged the Rajat Kamal National Film Award 2017 for Best Cinematographer – Non Feature Film.

Having done his primary and junior school from Devgarh and then from Guru Govind Singh Sr Sc School, followed by a BTech from the Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies, Alpesh moved on to Vadodra to study Dramatics and while studying he worked as a part time graphic designer for a local advertising agency.  During his studies and while working, Alpesh shot a few short films, to help him present his candidature at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.  His efforts got him selected as the top 30 sholars in 2014 and he commenced his one year cinematography course at FTII, Pune.

During his stay at FTII, he shot “ Kalpvriksh” a short film, as a part of his academic final project for the diploma course he was pursuing.  “ Kalpvriksh” was sent as a nomination for the awards and Alpesh, through his sheer hard work, skill and passion, went on to win the Best Cinematographer Rajat Kamal National Award 2017.

In his conversation with UdaipurTimes, he further said that “ Kalpvriksh” was an idea conceived by his course mate, Abhijeet Khuman.  Having discussed this idea at length and exploring the way about, Abhijeet and Alpesh set about working on the idea – the picturisation, visuals, colors, etc.  FTII trains students on presentation of the story with colors, visuals and sonics (audio).  Hence, as per Alpesh, the focus of this story, set in a parallel world – sans vehicles, infra, telephone and electric poles, mobiles, electronics was on visuals, its colors and sound.

Kalprvrishk  speaks about a young girls journey where she is looking for answers.  Alpesh added that the film was shot mostly around Pune, mainly in Mulshi.  Some parts of the film were shot in FTII and NFAI.  He says that the effort was made to maintain the natural feel and look of the surroundings – to add simplicity and rawness to the film.

Alpesh, whose family is in Vadodra, is currently working as a free lancer in Mumbai as a cinematographer with a couple of projects in hand.  He looks at continuing to work with professional setups and banners which can extract the best of his abilities.  Wishing Alpesh the very best in his journey…signing off.