Independent filmmakers and photographers have been enthusiastically using the iPhone to click photographs and even shoot short films that have gone on to win awards. It is the coming of age of the decade-long campaign 'Shot on iPhone' run by Apple
In February, a 30-minute film Fursat caught everyone’s attention on social media. It was shot entirely on an iPhone 14 Pro by filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj. Apple India released the movie on its official YouTube channel and it has garnered 144 million views so far.
For Kadav, who uses a MacBook Pro for editing these films, there is hardly any difference between shooting on a camera and a phone. “The preparation was the same. But because we were shooting using the phone, we saved on camera hire costs, and the camera team as such was smaller. The rest was the same,” she says.
Ritesh Uttamchandani, who has been a photographer for two decades now, too has used iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s to shoot images for his book The Red Cat and Other Stories, published in 2018. The photobook features 98 images showcasing a raw glimpse of life in Mumbai. He prefers using the iPhone because of the speed, good interface and clarity. However, though he is currently using iPhone XS, he says he doesn’t completely rely on phone photography and prefers carrying his camera wherever he goes.
But he hopes that with Apple manufacturing in India now, “they pass on some concessions to the consumers. If the prices will remain this high, chances are less for someone like me to switch to iOS products like Mac, iPad and so on”.