The lensman, the son of film publicist Colin Pal and grandson of filmmaker Niranjan Pal, died on 7 October in Secunderabad.
Our Correspondent
Cinematographer Deep Pal died in Secunderabad on 7 October. The 68-year-old had been suffering from cancer.
Deep, born on 16 April 1953, came from an illustrious film family. His father Colin was a film publicist and his grandfather Niranjan Pal was a writer-director and one of the founders of the premier film studio Bombay Talkies. Niranjan’s father was the freedom fighter Bipin Chandra Pal.
Remembering Niranjan Pal, visionary screenwriter, co-founder of Bombay Talkies
Deep was one of the pioneers in his field, who ushered in the use of Steadicam in the country. He began using the now-common camera mount for seamless shots as a Steadicam operator with the Telugu film Shiva (1990) directed by Ram Gopal Varma.
Other landmark films that used the Steadicam included Mani Ratnam’s Roja (1992) and Dil Se... (1998) and Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994). He also worked on films such as Border (1997), Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999), Filhaal… (2002) and Ashutosh Gowariker’s directorial debut Pehla Nasha (1993).
Deep was remembered fondly by actor Gajraj Rao in a lengthy Instagram post. Manoj Bajpayee, Archana Puran Singh and Shikha Talsania, who had all worked with him, commented on the post.
Deep, who also directed the Bombay-based documentaries Cages (1984) and Give Us This Day Our Daily Lunch (1985), is survived by his wife Yardley and son Joyojeet, a professor at the University of Michigan.
