From the editor’s desk

Dharmendra Sharma, editor of Ajay Devgn’s upcoming Shivaay shares his creative process of cutting the film and offers glimpses into the working relation with his director:

When does your role come into play — once the film is over or much before that It started from the moment we had the idea. I have been associated with Ajay Devgn for a long time and we heard the idea about four to five years ago. We had immediately liked the idea and he decided to work on it. Later, I told him that I want to do sound as well. Once he okayed it, we met Mithoon and worked on the music for about two years. Is it just you or is it a practice that movie editors are involved from the scratch No, that’s not the standard practice, but it is in my case. Partially because Ajay is my boss, but he is also my first cousin and we agree on many things.

Do you also give inputs about when the movie goes on the floors Yes, except for the Mumbai schedule, I have attended all the shoots. After every take he asked me if we had what was needed. Is it a lot of pressure to put together hours of footages together I would see the rushes during the shoot itself so that I knew all the camera angles and didn’t have to scan the footage later. Ajay shoots a lot with multiple cameras, which makes editor’s task much more difficult. Is it tough to pick your favourite shots among the many in the final edit I planned the promo two years ago. It was already placed in my head. The trailer of Shivaay was not made overnight. During pre-production, I had shown Ajay some reference of how the visuals were going to look in the trailer. Finally, he gave the heads up. The trailer got a phenomenal reaction not only in India but worldwide... I think everything was done nicely and it’s a VFX heavy film. This synergy between me, Ajay, Mithoon and the VFX supervisor was great. The way Ajay saw it, I managed to deliver it. Do you think Ajay has a good understanding of editing Ajay is a fantastic editor. He edits first and then shoots. But the only problem is that he can’t sit at it for months on end. If he could, then he wouldn’t need me (laughs). I don’t think he has the patience to sit at the machine. for long hours without anyone to talk to. This is the drawback of the profession of editing. But Ajay is always open to experiments, otherwise this trailer wouldn’t have been possible. People are generally less adventurous. People have this habit of asking “trailer ka length kya hai” and I request them to first watch it instead.