Cinematographer Navroze Contractor killed in bike accident in Bengaluru
Veteran documentary maker Anand Pathwardhan said, “It is a terrible and tragic loss of a great cinematographer and filmmaker who was above all a fun-loving and caring human being who was loved by all.”
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Navroze Contractor. LinkedIn Veteran cinematographer Navroze Contractor, 80, was killed in a road accident on Hosur Road near Bengaluru, on Sunday. A prolific documentary maker and filmmaker, Contractor was an avid biker, who had also made the documentary Bharat Parikrama (2005), which traced his 57-day circumnavigation of India on motorcycles.
Contractor had worked as a cinematographer for several Indian and foreign films. Some of the Indian films he worked on include Duvidha (1973) directed by Mani Kaul, 22nd June 1897 (1979), Limited Manuski (1995) and Devi Ahilya Bai (2002) directed by Nachiket & Jayoo Patwardhan, Pahela Adhyay (1981) by Vishnu Mathur, Percy (1989) directed by Pervez Merwanji, Love In The Time Of Malaria (1991) directed by Sanjiv Shah and Devarakadu (1993) directed by Pattabhi Rama Reddy. Contractor had also worked with notable foreign filmmakers like George Luneau, Pierre Hoffmann, and Martha Stewart.
Sanjiv Shah, his long-time collaborator and friend, said that Contractor was a multifaceted person, whose interest extended beyond movies to jazz music, biking and travelling. “I believe that his work is not as recognised as much as it should be,” said Shah.
Talking about Contractor’s work, Nachiket, who worked with the cinematographer on several occasions, said, “When he worked for foreign filmmakers, he imbibed their techniques.”
Veteran documentary maker Anand Pathwardhan said, “It is a terrible and tragic loss of a great cinematographer and filmmaker who was above all a fun-loving and caring human being who was loved by all.”
Some of the notable Indian films that Contractor worked on include All In The Family (1992) by Ketan Mehta, What Has Happened To This City (1986), Something Like A War (1991), The Legacy Of Malthus (1994) by Deepa Dhanraj and Famine 87 by Sanjiv Shah.
In a 2018 interview with filmmaker Oorvazi Irani, Contractor admitted that his visual style is probably that his “documentaries look like feature films and feature films look like documentaries”.
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