#BehindTheLens: "We used 3 different versions of crocs to sell our point.” - Debashis Remy Dalai on Tu Yaa Main

Tu Yaa Main became a gripping survival drama, and much of its immersive world was shaped by DOP Debashis Remy Dalai. He speaks to us about crafting its visual language, along with his journey and philosophy of building worlds.

Tu Yaa Main was initially met with uncertainty, a thriller centred around a crocodile didn’t sound like the safest bet. Yet it transformed into a theatrical experience audiences insisted be watched on the big screen. Much of that impact lies in its cinematography. From capturing a distinctly Gen Z visual language to framing a rain-soaked Mumbai as oppressive rather than romantic, and turning a swimming pool into a claustrophobic nightmare, the film’s imagery shapes its emotional pulse. The immersive world is crafted by its Director of Photography, Debashis Remy Dalai.

Dalai’s journey with the camera began at 15, when he picked up his father’s photography equipment and never looked back. Though he once considered becoming a writer-director, he soon realised the image was central to his storytelling. After studying Journalism, he pursued a Master’s in Filmmaking at the London Film School. He started in Delhi with commercials and music videos before moving to Mumbai in 2016, assisting cinematographers like Sejal Shah on Bejoy Nambiar’s Solo.

As India’s digital space grew, he honed his voice through collaborations with Culture Machine, Schbang, and Glitch across ads, music videos, and short films. Long-form storytelling arrived in 2019 with Netflix’s Indian Predator: Beast of Bangalore and since then his work has spanned projects including Taaza Khabar, The Great Shamshuddin Family, Ziddi Girls, and now Tu Yaa Main. In this conversation, Dalai reflects on building the film’s aesthetic tension and shares his larger philosophy on bringing fictional worlds alive through the lens.

Also Read: #KetchupTalks: "I’m a huge Vishal Bhardwaj fan. For me just being in this film felt like a dream come true" - Hussain Dalal on O Romeo

Here’s what he had to say!

⁠Tu Yaa Main has a very distinct visual style, the frames feel like they're staged for social media. Was that a deliberate choice to make the film feel closer to Gen Z’s way of expressing themselves? 

Tu Yaa Main is a love story mounted on a creature feature. Right through prep Bejoy and I wanted to do justice to both so the two halves of the film are quite different to each other visually. The intimacy of the love story in the first half was crucial in raising stakes for the second half. For any audience to engage and feel the struggle of survival in the second half, they had to root for our characters in the first. We tried to devise a camera language that would keep the audience invested and engaged but also work on a thematic level for the story. In prep we found that a lot of the newer visual engagement on social media doesn’t give your eyes a rest. There are constant visuals or transitions one is being exposed to and we incorporated a similar style into our language. Editor Priyank Prem Kumar kept the pace high, we shot longer developing shots with multiple frames in one movement to keep the eye engaged, kept the camera moving almost constantly, shot transitions in camera, etc. A lot of planning went into the montages to ensure they all maintain the grammar. 

And how did you and Bejoy Nambiar arrive at this stylistic language for the film?

Bejoy has always had a very strong visual approach to his films and this was no different. We wanted a look that would do justice to the genre. We shot during the monsoons and in strenuous conditions. None of the seasons in our country are shy. We don’t have subtle light like in Europe where the light is soft and angular for 8 months. I try, in most of my work, to embrace the conditions rather than fight them. The monsoon provided a beautifully grungy backdrop to the film. One that could feel romantic in one scene and a menace in another. The constant presence of water was also thematically important to us. The colour palette came from the blue of water and red of blood. The aspect ratio was determined on the basis of the space and oddly enough, the creature. The second half of the film takes place entirely inside the pool where we wanted to drive home the feeling of being trapped in a box. We wanted to frame as wide as possible in that space to make our characters look small. Every frame, even close ups needed to have the pool towering over them. We started looking at anamorphic lensing early on to do the same. Longer lenses on the anamorphics behave like close lenses but also give you a much wider field of view. There’s a lot of bird’s eye shots to show the scale of the pool and them being trapped. The other deciding factor was the creature itself. I was in talks with Prasun (Probotix - the animatronics team) when he was making the croc. And we would go and see it at intervals. I started framing the croc on a view finder and it turns out, to get a wide shot of the crocodile on spherical lenses, there’s a lot of negative space above and below the crocodile. But in anamorphic, you can have a wide full body shot of the croc but without revealing unnecessary information. The first half has been peppered with scenes of warm sunlight which we went to great lengths to avoid for most of the film. 

Between Bejoy and I, there are also some genre defining films that we obviously went back to in prep. For me, Jaws and Jurassic Park played a very important role in defining the language for this genre of films and I studied them extensively. Using the creature sparingly, creating mystery around it, bathing it in light and shadow in equal measure, the silhouettes, keeping the audience on the edge by just suggesting the creature, etc. These films also come with a lot of tropes and we had to find a balance of giving into and resisting them. 

View this post on Instagram

Did your background in ad filmmaking help shape the way you approached the framing here?

I would say more than the framing, I took a lot of learnings from advertising on a logistical level rather than a creative one. Ads are quick. Nowadays, on an ad set, we are usually shooting more than one film a day and time is also divided between stills and social media content. One has to be prepped and ready and also have the bandwidth to improvise set ups. Tu Yaa Main had similar restraints with time and sometimes even space. There were several days where we were shooting at least 3-4 set ups a day and more often than not, they would be quick montages instead of entire scenes. So within my team, my Gaffer Hassan Mondal (LightCraft 2.0), my first AC Nikhil Pai and I would sit and plan precisely how to split units and manage forward set ups. As far as the framing goes, there could be some parallels because Avni and Maruti are social media influencers and they’re more in tune to selling a product. So when we did shoot them in their influencer element, we did shoot some bits like we would commercials. 

View this post on Instagram

⁠The film also involves extensive underwater sequences and a crocodile, something that requires heavy post-production and VFX work. How did you navigate that technical space while still ensuring the emotions of terror and fear felt raw and immediate?

To make the experience smooth for the audience, we used 3 different versions of crocs to sell our point. There was a real croc, an animatronic one and a complete VFX one. All of the crocodile scenes have used a blend of all three of these. We had an amazing VFX collaborator in Phantom and during the entire prep our main objective was to allow the story and emotion to come through everything we did. We had to work hand in hand to make sure VFX has what they need in terms of information. Be it plates or exposure information or lens metadata, everything worked in tandem. I enjoy the technical aspects of my job a lot and this is the most technical I’ve ever had to be. We were also working on limited budgets so we had to be certain about what we could achieve and the best way to go about it. All of the crocodile scenes had a Pre Visualisation done so we knew exactly what was needed and how we could achieve it. VFX needs time and the more prepped you are, the better they can do their job. Priyank, our editor, was also involved at this stage to make sure we weren’t missing anything. As for underwater cinematography, it was completely new to me. I am an amateur scuba diver and needed the support of a fantastic underwater team. I have shot underwater sequences before but not been in the water operating myself. It is physically exhausting and technically very tedious but the basics of cinematography largely remain unchanged. Barring a few quick lessons in light and optic refraction in our early days, we fared okay. As far as the terror is concerned, I have to give a big up to AdarshGourav and Shanaya Kapoor. We had a few “dummy” crocodile busts for them to act against or react to but they really did the selling. 

View this post on Instagram

In this film, Mumbai city and other locations carry a distinct, drenched aesthetic like blue midnight look. Was it a conscious decision to give locations this flavour that is visually fresh and atmospheric in a city that has been so extensively shot before?

The city plays a very important backdrop to our story. It’s two completely different worlds that exist right next to each other. I’m glad we were able to showcase the differences and not shy away from them. This is a film that could sometimes slightly stray away from reality. I have tried to keep my work in the past rooted in reality. Whether it’s Taaza Khabar’s chawls or TheGreat Shamsuddin Family’s living room they all draw their look from the reality of the situation. Tu Yaa Main opened up that limitation a little bit because it is a genre film and we could push boundaries more than I usually would. I don’t romanticise Bombay. It can be a harsh and ruthless city. The monsoons are romantic and pleasant from the window of a high rise but the same rain might be an absolute nuisance for someone wading through it. The monsoon is overwhelming. It is overbearing. So in the film I wanted to bathe the city in blue as we progress and then break it with blood red in the pool.

In terms of the shot taking too, I wanted the audience to see the city differently when you’re with Maruti and differently when you’re with Avni. The spaces were designed keeping this in mind by Proudction Designer Pooja Palan. Avni’s more subtle, minimalist almost monotone world is in stark contrast to Maruti’s loud and saturated world. To tie all these thoughts together, Colorist Sid Meer (BridgePost) created a LUT for us that pushed more blues into our image as well as some green in the shadows. We usually make different LUTs for different scenarios but Sid’s LUT worked across the board. We were always sure we didn’t want to glamourise the spaces but keep them in reality. There is enough contrast in the city without having to force it. The shot taking also didn’t shy away from the expanse. We showed off the city at every chance we got. Similar shots for Worli's high rise skyline and Govandi’s slums also tried to drive the point home. 

As seen in Taaza Khabar also, your frames often have that stylised aesthetic. Does it ever concern you that visually polished striking compositions, while beautiful, might undercut emotional power? 

As a cinematographer I really feel my job is to be invisible. I don’t want to supersede the story or take attention away from a performance. Be it human or reptile. I think our choices come from a mix of two things. One is that yes, people are more exposed to images now. So one has to constantly find ways to be experimental and push the boundaries of our conventions. The other, and more crucial to me, is what the script needs. You’re right in identifying Taaza Khabar for being stylised. That came out of the content too. A rags to riches with a supernatural twist felt like it needed a little more than a conventional way of shooting it. Tu Yaa Main comes from a world of influencers so our choices had to mimic that.  Having said that, yes, it does worry me if my work becomes overpowering. Like I mentioned earlier, the ideal scenario for me is where my work doesn’t get noticed and the choices we’ve made conveys the words on paper to the best of its ability. Anything that takes attention away from the performance and the emotion of the scene is a deterrent. So it’s an everyday process of evolving and finding the best, most engaging way of telling a story. I’m not an advocate of style just for the sake of it. Bejoy and I would discuss elaborate shots every now and then and there were several instances when we both felt it would’ve been overkill for the moment. 

View this post on Instagram

This along with your previous works like The Great Shamsuddin Family, Ziddi Girls, and more showcases your ability to explore high emotional tension within contained spaces. Would you say that working within tight, confined environments is your forte? 

I’m glad you noticed! This is a recent development. I find that sometimes the spaces we shoot in aren’t real enough. Houses aren’t always sprawling. Every advertisement has a kitchen island. I’ve probably seen two in Bombay. So I stopped shying away from smaller spaces. We’re also at a time in tech terms where lights have gotten smaller and cooler that allows one to be more innovative without a space restriction. I don’t think a small space restricts you in terms of the image anymore. I understand that it probably did at one point. Today I don’t think a small space is a compromise and in fact, could have more character when done right. I won’t call it my forte, but I don’t shy away from it like I maybe used to. 

Having worked across ad films, features, and series for years, what is the biggest myth about cinematography that you would like to debunk? And is there an industry standard you strongly disagree with, something you would change for good if you could?

The myth about cinematography that I’m guilty of at times and want to debunk at times is that we have a tendency to over complicate things. You don’t always need a truck full of light and a lot of gear to tell a story you believe in. I have lit things with truckloads of light and I’ve lit things with a thermocol and they both work. There are several practices in our industry that I and I’m pretty sure everyone around me would change for good. Health and safety: There’s a complete disregard for this and people risk injuries or worse on a daily  basis. This needs to be enforced and right from the top so it trickles down to the daily wagers who are actually at risk of harm. Wage disparity: The wage disparities are just absurd in our industry.

For more interviews, follow us on @socialketchupbinge.