Sudeep Chatterjee

Sudeep Chatterjee is an Indian cinematographer, who mainly works in Hindi films and Bengali films. He has collaborated with critically acclaimed directors like Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Vishal Bharadwaj, Srijit Mukherji, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Nagesh Kukunoor. He is mostly known for his work in films like Iqbal, Chak De India (2007), Guzaarish (2010), Dhoom 3 (2013), Chotushkone (2014), Bajirao Mastani (2015), Padmaavat (2018), and Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022). He has received the National Film Award for Best Cinematography, twice, for Chotushkone and Bajirao Mastani.

Early life and education Chatterjee was born and raised in Kolkata. After he passed class 10 his father gave him a camera, which in time provided him with a career direction. After he finished his schooling he joined an engineering college, but after only eight months he left it to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, where he studied cinematography.

Career After graduating from Film and Television Institute of India, he started his career in Kolkata making advertisements and documentaries, eventually after two years, filmmaker Anjan Dutt offered him Bada Din (1997), a Hindi film starring Shabana Azmi. Thereafter he shifted based to Mumbai and started working TV series and commercials for a year before he shot Ram Gopal Verma's Road (2002).

Soon was working in film across genres, action, thriller and drama, and his in Salman Khan starrer, Lucky: No Time for Love (2005), where he shot the picturesque locales of Russia, followed by Nagesh Kukunoor's successive films Iqbal (2005) and Dor (2006), and Jaan-E-Mann (2005) got him attention, and he got to do Chak De! India (2007) directed by Shimit Amin, where he grained and desaturated the film, and shot almost 80% of the movie with a hand-held camera, eventually winning him accolades and the 2008 Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography, IIFA Award for Best Cinematography and Zee Cine Award for Best Cinematography amongst others. Guzaarish Won IIFA, Screen, and Apsara award for best Cinematography.

He followed it up with the big budget super successful entertainer Dhoom 3 (2013). He then worked in the film Chotushkone (2014) directed by critically acclaimed director Srijit Mukherji for which Chatterjee won the prestigious National Film Award for Best Cinematography.

Chatterjee followed up with his second consecutive National award in 2015 with the highly acclaimed Bajirao Mastani directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

He again collaborated with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for the critically and commercially successful period piece Padmavat (2018). He is currently shooting the period drama Gangubai Kathiawadi (2021) directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and much anticipated Brahmāstra (2022) directed by Ayan Mukherjee.

He is presently a member of the advisory board of the Kautik International Student Film Festival

Filmography

Films Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year Film Language Director Notes 1997 Bada Din Hindi Anjan Dutt 2002 Road Rajat Mukherjee 2004 Kyun! Ho Gaya Na... Samir Karnik 2005 Lucky: No Time for Love Radhika RaoVinay Sapru Iqbal Nagesh Kukunoor Eashwar Mime Co. Shyamanand Jalan 2006 Dor Nagesh Kukunoor Jaan-E-Mann Shirish Kunder Fight Club – Members Only Vikram Chopra 2007 Chak De! India Shimit Amin 2008 Kaalpurush Bengali Buddhadeb Dasgupta Bombay To Bangkok Hindi Nagesh Kukunoor Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic Kunal Kohli 2009 Dil Bole Hadippa Anurag Singh Kaminey Vishal Bhardwaj Additional photographyMain Aurr Mrs Khanna Prem Raj2010 Aashayein Nagesh Kukunoor Guzaarish Sanjay Leela Bhansali 2011 Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Ali Abbas Zafar 2012 Joker Shirish Kunder 2013 Dhoom 3 Vijay Krishna Acharya 2014 Chotushkone Bengali Srijit Mukherji 2015 Baby Hindi Neeraj Pandey Bajirao Mastani Sanjay Leela Bhansali 2017 Kaabil Sanjay Gupta 2018 Padmaavat Sanjay Leela Bhansali Missing Mukul Abhyankar 2019 Thackeray Abhijit Panse Housefull 4 Farhad Samji 2022 Gangubai Kathiawadi Sanjay Leela Bhansali Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva Ayan Mukerji 2023ShehzadaRohit Dhawan 2024Chandu Champion Kabir Khan 2025Bhool Chuk Maaf Karan Sharma 2026 Indra Kumar 2027 TeluguHanu Raghavapudi Debut in Telugu cinema

Web series Denotes web series that have not yet been released

Year Film Creator Ref. 2024HeeramandiSanjay Leela Bhansali

Documentary Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017) - a multi-lingual (English, Hindi, Marathi) documentary sports film.

Awards and nominations