Editfx Studios has been a pioneer in introducing the latest technology for digital acquisition for films, movies, series, documentaries and other audio-visual media in eastern India. As it completes 15 years of passionate and renowned work, t2 dropped in at their studio for a chat with one of the founders, Harcharan Singh. Excerpts...

How has the journey been for the last 15 years?

It has been great. Unbelievably, great.

Tell us about how it all began.

I was always a lover of cinema and when digitisation happened, that is when we entered the scene. During this time old equipment was being replaced with new ones and we introduced the first camera in eastern India. We were also the first ones in India to bring the Red Epic camera. In 2009, my friend Anurag Chirimar and I shifted from being cable operators to films, cameras and more. When people gradually began accepting the new wave of technology, I remember we gave cameras for Krissh 2. It has been a very long journey because we did not make the shift overnight. We started off small and did a lot of research.

Tell us about the bond you have with Anurag…

Anurag and I were cable operators, and then we shifted. But we wanted to do something out of the box. We realised that once conditional accessibility is viable in the cable industry, revenues will go down. That is when Editfx happened. We go back 32 years and we are pretty much surviving because of each other (laughs). It feels like destiny, we met on the road. In 1991, cable network picked up pace and we were one of the first ones to take it up in Calcutta. Then in 2009 we began a production facility and started off in this office. Earlier we had only one floor, now we have around 7,000sq ft for ourselves.

What are the challenges you had to face through these years?

Well in any field there are numerous challenges and whenever there is something new, the common reaction is backlash and adaptability is low. So, when we started getting cameras people said that films could never be digitised and how could cinema be made digitally. In the first six to eight months there was very little demand and we had expected that as well.

What was the big breakthrough?

The main twist came with Srijit Mukherji’s Autograph. With Autograph’s success came more enquiries and business. Our first film was Avik Mukhopadhyay’s Ekti Tarar Khonje but with Autograph’s release everyone loved the quality and within a year we got six to seven cameras.

How many cameras do you have right now and how are they different from what you have had earlier?

Around 20. So, the thing about cameras is that they keep changing every year, be it new technology or better properties. To keep up, we need to change accordingly. For instance, 2k resolution was the go-to earlier but 8k is being used now.

What was the path after Autograph?

We started taking up commercial films which starred actors like Dev and Jeet. We were giving all the facilities to filmmakers which made work convenient. They got cameras and post-production from the same place which saved time and resources.

What are Editfx’s biggest achievements?

I think the biggest feather in our cap is the film Pink. Shoojit Sircar had earlier worked with us and as a Bengali he was so happy that we hailed from Calcutta that he immediately told us that we would do his next film. When we came to know that the film had Amitabh Bachchan, we were overjoyed. We also met Amitji and honestly we felt like we had seen God. After Pink, October came our way. Then we also gave cameras for Gulaabo Sitaabo and Kadak Singh. We also received two prestigious awards for Sardar Udham and that was something we had never dreamt of. We had done the set creation, skin correction and more for the 2021 film. Apart from this, we have provided cameras for multiple Bombay projects.

How much history is there in this studio?

History has been written several times in this studio, beginning from Rituparno Ghosh to Mithun Chakraborty, almost all prominent individuals from the Bengali industry have either worked in post-production or dubbing in this very studio.

What is the way ahead from here and what is the mantra that keeps you fuelled?

Our vision is... let’s make films better and that defines our role in films. That is the value we add to movies. So, going ahead that is the goal. Moreover, our field is an unending game. Business is endless. You will fall and rise and the cycle repeats. If there is one thing that keeps us going and on track, it is that change is constant. You have to change as times change otherwise you will not be able to be relevant in the longer run. Survival of the fittest. The show must always go on!