What lenses were you using, and why?

I used my usual choice -- the Master Prime series -- because I feel that they complement the kind of clarity and crispness ALEXA offers. I also prefer them for the huge range of available focal lengths, although my favorites are the 25 mm, 65 mm and 35 mm. I tend to do a lot of handheld work and always used to appreciate the Ultra Primes for the weight factor, but Master Primes definitely give me more sharpness so I came to terms with handling that little bit of extra weight.

Why did you decide to record ARRIRAW?

We had a lot of VFX work and the option to record ARRIRAW in-camera without any on-board recorders gave us so much freedom in our day-to-day work. Our VFX supervisor preferred shooting ARRIRAW because it gave them more room to play with and also gave me more scope to manipulate the image in post. In fact, "Happy New Year" was the first film in India to start shooting with ALEXA XT cameras. Red Chillies Entertainments bought a brand-new ALEXA XT for this project; it was delivered directly to Dubai, where we began our principle shooting.

Was the ALEXA XT workflow an easy one?

The workflow was simple and fool-proof, hence there was nothing to worry about. My DIT team handled the footage with ease and they were very happy about the simple workflow for ALEXA XT. The transcodes were made with Rec 709 for most of the footage, since it was close enough to the look we wanted to achieve. It allowed the director and other HoDs to see the footage in the very same way as we intended the final film to look.