Indian Cinematographers on Cooke Lenses: Five Films, Five Visual Worlds, One Storytelling Philosophy

Five of India's most celebrated directors of photography. Five visually distinct films. One shared conviction: that Cooke lenses do not impose a style, they serve a story. This is how that conviction played out across sets, schedules, and screen.

Over the last few years, a quiet pattern has been forming in Indian cinema. Productions ranging from mythological epics to superhero sagas to intimate period dramas have been reaching for the same Cooke lenses. Not because of a trend, but because of a result. When the image comes back from the grade, something feels right. Cooke users tend to describe it the same way: the lens gets out of the way of the story.

What follows are five accounts from the field. Five directors of photography, each working on a different kind of film, each describing not what Cooke lenses look like, but what they made possible.

LOKAH CHAPTER 1: CHANDRA

Building a Superhero World One Lens at a Time

Nimish Ravi, DoP · Cooke S8/i

Lokah is not a film that arrives quietly. A female-led superhero saga set against a mythic Indian backdrop, it demanded a visual language that could carry both the scale of spectacle and the weight of character. For director of photography Nimish Ravi, the answer was not a new experiment but a continuation of a long relationship.

Ravi has worked through Cooke's lens families across his career: S4/i, then S5/i, then S7/i. For Lokah, he moved to the S8/i, pairing it with the Sony Venice 2. The progression was deliberate. Each generation had given him something the last could not, and the S8/i delivered the resolution and organic rendering that a film of this visual ambition required.

“I've always been a Cooke person. I started with the S4/i, then S5/i, S7/i, and now the S8/i. For Lokah, the Cooke S8/i paired with the Sony Venice 2 was the perfect choice.”

Nimish Ravi  ·  Director of Photography

What is striking about Ravi's account is the absence of doubt. This was not a lens evaluated and chosen. It was a relationship arriving at its next chapter. For a film where the visual stakes were high and the creative brief demanded both intimacy and grandeur, that kind of certainty matters on set.

KANTARA CHAPTER 1

Making the Mythic Feel Lived In

Arvind S. Kashyap ISC, DoP · Cooke S7A 1.8x Anamorphic FF

The world of Kantara is specific. Ancient forests, ritual, a culture that sits between the human and the divine. Arvind S. Kashyap ISC's challenge was to make that world feel inhabited rather than constructed, to shoot mythology without making it look like a mythology film.

For the day sequences, Kashyap chose Cooke Anamorphic FF lenses in the non-special flare configuration. The choice was about what the lenses would not do as much as what they would. He needed warmth without saturation, texture without noise, and a slight anamorphic character that would give the image a sense of depth and lived experience without drawing attention to itself.

“The mild warmth, gentle barrel distortion, and organic texture gave the imagery a living quality that perfectly complemented Kantara's world.”

Arvind S. Kashyap ISC · Director of Photography

The phrase Kashyap reaches for is telling: a living quality. It is not about a technical property of the lens but about what the image communicates to an audience who will never think about optics. The Anamorphic FF made Kantara's world feel like somewhere that existed before the camera arrived.

PARASAKTHI

Same Glass, Completely Different Worlds

Ravi K. Chandran ISC, DoP · Cooke S8/i with SP3

Ravi K. Chandran ISC offers what is perhaps the most compelling argument for Cooke in a single sentence. He shot three films back to back on the same lenses: Thug Life, OG, and Parasakthi. Each one looks entirely different.

For Parasakthi, Chandran used the Cooke S8/i as his primary lens, with the SP3 for select sequences. The film is one of Tamil cinema's most iconic stories, a work with its own visual heritage and emotional register. Bringing it to the screen required lenses that would serve that specific world without imposing a contemporary aesthetic on a timeless narrative.

“I’ve shot my last three films Thug Life, OG, & Parasakthi — with Cooke lenses, each one visually unique. That’s what I love about Cooke. Same lenses — completely different worlds.”

Ravi K. Chandran ISC · Director of Photography

The observation is the clearest case for what Cooke lenses actually offer. A lens with genuine character does not stamp a look on every project. It responds to what the film needs. For Chandran, the S8/i and SP3 combination gave him a visual language rooted in the material, not the equipment. Three films, three distinct identities, one set of Cooke lenses.

MADHARASI

When Realism Is the Only Option

Sudeep Elamon, DoP · Cooke S8/i

Madharasi is a high-octane action drama that unfolds over four to five days, mostly at night, shot across real locations for 130 days without building a single set. Director A.R. Murugadoss demanded absolute authenticity: rush-hour chaos captured as it happened, a real fireball staged at an actual toll gate, the kinetic energy of streets rendered without gimmicks. For cinematographer Sudeep Elamon, a SIMMA Award-winning DoP whose work spans non-fiction and large-scale action, the brief was clear: make it feel as real as possible.

The film’s visual strategy was built around concealment: framing that reflects the protagonist’s disturbed psyche, compositional choices that hide tension rather than announce it. Across five to six locations in a non-linear structure, visual consistency was non-negotiable. Elamon reached for the Cooke S8/i as his primary lens, and the SP3 when the language needed to shift.

“This was my first time using Cooke optics, and the S8/i lenses delivered the clean, consistent imagery I needed, with minimal flares. But when I wanted to introduce flares to support a more handheld, visceral language, the SP3 lenses became an excellent choice.”

Sudeep Elamon · Director of Photography

What Elamon describes is a workflow built on two distinct registers: the S8/i holding the film’s visual spine with clean, controlled imagery, and the SP3 stepping in to fracture that control when the story demanded it. The ability to move between the two without losing coherence across a complex, multi-location shoot is precisely what the brief required.

PATRIOT

Global Scale, Human Truth

Manush Nandan ISC, DoP · Cooke Panchro/i Classic FF

Patriot is a political high-octane thriller directed by Mahesh Narayanan, featuring Mammootty, Mohanlal, Fahadh Faasil, and Kunchacko Boban. It moves across countries, landscapes, and emotional terrains, demanding a visual language that feels both immediate and deeply immersive, placing the audience not as spectators but as observers inside unfolding reality.

For cinematographer Manush Nandan ISC, the visual challenge on Patriot was as much geographical as it was creative. A film that moves across countries and real locations means the colour palette shifts with every environment, every mood, every change of light. Nandan’s approach was to stay true to each location rather than imposing a uniform look, letting ground reality drive the visual language. For that kind of flexibility, the lenses had to respond rather than impose.

“The color palette kept changing with locations. We stayed true to the ground reality of each mood. For all these variations, Cooke optics responded beautifully.”

Manush Nandan ISC  ·  Director of Photography

What Nandan’s account points to is a lens that does not lock a film into a single visual identity. Across countries, shifting light conditions, and scenes that demanded entirely different emotional registers, the Cooke Panchro/i Classic FF held its coherence without homogenising the image. Each location retained its own character. The lenses simply made sure that character could be captured honestly.

ABOUT ARK INFOSOLUTIONS

Bringing Cooke to Indian Productions

Behind every Cooke lens on an Indian film set is a distribution network that makes access possible. ARK Infosolutions, one of India's leading technology solutions partners for the media and entertainment industry, is the authorised distributor of Cooke Optics in India. With a presence across the country and deep relationships with rental houses, production companies, and cinematographers, ARK has been instrumental in bringing Cooke's full lens portfolio within reach of Indian productions.

From the S8/i to the Anamorphic FF and Panchro/i Classic FF families, ARK works with both established and emerging cinematographers to match the right lenses to the right project. The stories in this piece are, in part, a reflection of that access. When a DoP in India reaches for a Cooke lens, ARK is the infrastructure that makes it possible.

WHY IT MATTERS

A Capability, Not a Look

Five films. Five cinematographers. Five entirely different visual worlds. The thing they share is not a house style or a signature look. It is a quality of response: lenses that take the shape of the story being told rather than imposing one of their own.

That is what these accounts describe collectively, even though each DoP arrived at the conclusion independently, on a different set, for a different audience, with a different brief. The Cooke S8/i serves a superhero saga. The Anamorphic FF carries a mythological epic. The Classic FF gives a period drama its temporal honesty. The same optical DNA, in each case serving something specific and unrepeatable.

In a film industry where technology moves fast and trends faster, these are the conversations that matter. Not about what a lens looks like, but about what it lets a story become.