Human | Srinivas Brahmand Achary
Brahmand's son was more inclined to mechanical repairing than his clan's occupation.He sensed from his school days, he would be forced to learn a goldsmith job.
He reciprocated. He escaped.
In 1991 July, Srinivas Brahmand Achary son of Lakshmi & Brahmand decided to displace himself from his homeland Brahmapur, Odisha. The school boy quit his studies at 8th standard and reached Surat, Gujarat by a train.
In Surat, the vagabond managed to find a job in a garment factory. He lived with his fellow workers of the factory.
After six months he doubted that his family would catch him from Surat.
He travelled to Bombay. Local railway stations were his sleeping place. He began working as a helper for electricians and plumbers. Once he worked in Arthur Road Jail.
Srinivas fetched a job in a video parlour in Sion: job of a ticket seller. He was not interested in movies.
In 1992, Srinivas reached a garage and asked for a job. His condition was- 'allow me to sleep at the garage, provide me food.'
Srinivas worked in that garage for a year without salary.
One day he felt like writing a letter to his parents , and he continued.
Srinivas felt a vacuum, when his father stood in front of him at the garage.
Brahmand did not disown his son, but he also stayed with his son at the garage for three days.
Srinivas decided to pause his pursuit. His stubborn mind melted. He travelled back to his hometown Brahmpur with his father from Bombay.
1993. Painful Bombay riots happened.Srinivas felt another pain while watching the news from his Odisha village.
Srinivas started meeting his childhood friend at his village. Those conversations helped Srinivas to meet his friend's brother Babu.
Babu was working in Hindi movies as a light-man.
Again the vagabond mind in Srinivas triggered. He travelled to Bombay to meet Babu.
Babu was not willing to help Srinivas. But Srinivas decided to be around Babu's colleagues- Satish & Shankar. Satish's father wanted to help Srinivas.
The generous man was working in the Hindi movie Saudagar as a light-man.
He asked Srinivas "The hero of Saudagar movie Vivek Mushran is looking for a spot boy, why don't you join him?"
Srinivas was not willing to do that job, but asked him to place him in the lighting department.
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Srinivas joined Kamala Enterprises - a company which operated as a lights vendor for movies and advertising films.
Joseph D'Souza and Karunakaran were the bosses of Srinivas at Kamala.
Genesis was the leading advertising film production company in Bombay then.
A young man named Rakeysh was assisting in Genesis those days. Rakeysh was highly focussed. His ambition earned him a superior place in Hindi movies.
I asked Srinivas, "is this Rakeysh the same Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra?."
Srini paused a moment and said " Yes "
Srinivas too was very ambitious. He started doing interview shoots independently. One day he met cinematographer Sanu John Varghese at an advertising film shoot in a studio in Bombay.That conversation helped Srinivas to begin as an assistant to Sanu.
I met Srinivas in 2015 for a brand film. I sensed his cinematography skills could help me as a filmmaker.
June 7th 2021, I met Srinivas in Cochin for a television commercial assignment commissioned by a food brand.
My intuition forced me to ask Srini about his journey. He was not hesitant to talk about it.
His message texts in English are always in correct grammar. My amusement forced me to ask him "How did you learn to write good English?"
Srinivas started giggling. "Well I assist Vikash Nowlakha, the cinematographer. He insisted that I get a grip of English language."
As a cinematographer, Srinivas has shot for various brands - Gillette, Bournvita, Land Rover, Dell, Horlicks.
As a brother, Srini helped his sibling to get a stable job in Mumbai.
At 10.10pm on July 7th 2021, I hugged Srinivas.
8th July.The entire night was raining.
9th Morning, we both traveled to the location of the shoot and reached by 6am. Srini looked at the weather forecast and said "Sam it is looking dangerous for us."
Rain stopped at 7.20am.
7.30 am was the time we scheduled to roll the camera!.
Srini, husband of Kalpana and father of two girl children joyfully told me in the middle of shoot " Sam, weather is very kind to us and the sunshine is perfectly balanced for our shoot !"