‘It was a battle worth the experience’: Sanyukta Kaza on her experience of editing 'Tumbbad'

Last year’s visual spectacle and commercially successful film, Tumbbad, was described by many as an edge-of-the-seat fantasy. A major chunk of the credit for the same should go to the editor and creative producer, Sanyukta Kaza. She overcame several challenges such as filling up several narrative gaps and missing important shots by restructuring the entire project. But, in the end, it was worth all the hard work. Here, she talks about her experience.    

At what stage did you join Tumbbad?

Co-director of the film, Adesh Prasad, contacted me just before the last leg of the shoot. I didn’t know much about it except that it had several re-writings, production hassles and that there was one rough cut made over four years. I knew it was going to be a long and arduous task with no timelines, which I don’t normally do. Yet, I said yes because Adesh is a friend. The first thing I did was delete all of the previous work, as I find it easier to start from scratch than work off someone else’s edit.

What were your reactions when you first saw the footage?

It almost seemed amateur. I had foreseen this even when I read the script for the first time. I’m happy that it turned out fine.

What were the most challenging parts? 

As the script developed over time, the style and form of the actors and directors kept changing as well. Also, the plot holes were vivid when we began. Thankfully, there were some mood shots filmed by the crew without knowing exactly where they would be used. I picked up these and used them at different places as strong metaphors to convey what words and other visuals could not — fear, mystery or loss of glory and so on. 

What changes did you make?

We changed the order and context of the scenes and took out everything that was unnecessary. Even the montages didn’t exist on paper; we built them carefully over one year of editing. There were more than eight scenes that were about 10-minutes long each. They looked cool but said little. Apart from structuring and filling in the narrative gaps, the first cut of the film, which followed the script, was close to 240 minutes long. It obviously did not work. Now, the film stands at close to 100 minutes. How did you deal with heavy VFX scenes? 

I had to watch each shot carefully and negotiate with the VFX producers since every frame costs money. At the same time, you don’t want to compromise on the drama. There were portions that were not even filmed, but we made them in VFX from stills of different frames in the film, composited them together, and added the creature as well as the camera movement. It required not only a lot of imagination but also money. In the end, it was a battle worth the experience. Who makes a creature, treasure hunt film in India with this ambition and madness?