Deep Pal

Deep Pal Biography

Deep Pal is a leading cinematographer from Indian film industry, a pioneer of Steadicam camerawork in India, and known for his association with some of the leading filmmakers like Shekhar Kapur and Mani Rathnam for their acclaimed works – Bandit Queen and Dil Se respectively. He is the son of Colin Pal, a film actor, publicist and technician associated with Bollywood yesterdays. He was a journalist and publisher too, who has been associated with around 175 Hindi movies. Deep’s grandfather was the famous film producer Niranjan Pal - a playwright, screenwriter and director of the silent era. He is the great-grandson of Bipin Chandra Pal – a nationalist, a freedom fighter and social reformer.

Deep Pal was born on April 16, 1953 into a family with strong links with cinema, literature and art. Her pursuing his graduation in Mumbai, he moved to Germany to do a diploma course in cinematography. Then he took training in Steadicam, Underwater photography and Sky Diving Photography from US before returning to his country. Before turning a full-fledged cinematographer, he directed a few documentary films. Cages (1984) based on prostitutes of Mumbai and Give us this Day our Daily Lunch (1985) based on Mumbai Dabbawala network are among his noted works.

Deep got fully active in film scene by 1990s, and worked as Director of Photography for Bollywood movie - Pehla nasha. He then worked as a Steadicam Operator for some of the finest works of 1990s – Border, Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United and Dil Se. He continued working till 2007 in this role. He worked as a cinematographer for one Bollywood film, Stripped. His wife Yardley Pal assisted him in this work, and marked her Bollywood debut. He is quite active with workshops.

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Updated: June 16, 2018