G. S. Bhaskar

Gauribidanur Suryanarayan Bhaskar (born 2 March 1955) better known as G.S. Bhaskar is an Indian cinematographer, predominantly works in the Kannada and Hindi Film Industry.

He is also a member of the ISC (Indian Society of Cinematographers).

G.S Bhaskar was born in Bangalore on 2 March 1955, to G. Suryanarayan Rao, Lakshmidevi Suryanarayan Rao.

He is the youngest of 4 children.

He had his primary education from National High School (Bangalore).

And later he completed his bachelor's degree from National College, Bangalore.

When G.S. Bhaskar first met the well-known director Girish Kasaravalli, he was convinced to enrol in the Pune-based FTII.

Later, Bhaskar submitted an application for the highly competitive Film and Television Institute of India entrance exam, to which only 30 students are selected from a pool of 3000 applicants.

While studying at FTII he was mentored by the legendary cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, Asvani Kaul who introduced G S Bhaskar to Apurba Kishore Bir, an alumnus of FTII (1971) whom he assisted on several promotional films before joining him as a member of the camera team on GANDHI.

He was shocked to learn that he had been admitted, and in 1976 he started his journey at the Film and Television Institute of India.

Known for his prominent work as a second camera assistant in the magnum opus Gandhi (1980).

He continued to assist A K Bir on three more feature films namely, Pankaj Parashar’s Ab Ayega Mazaa (1982), Sagar Sarhadi’s Tere Sheher Mein (1983) and Prasad Productions’ Mera Ghar Mere Bachche (1984).

After his apprenticeship with A K Bir in Mumbai G S Bhaskar came back to Bangalore and joined Girish Kasaravalli as associate director on the national award-winning film Tabarana Kathe (1987).

The duo successfully collaborated again on the award winning documentary, Bharavaseya Hongirana produced by Karnataka government.

He filmed a film on conservation titled ‘Afforestation’ (1987) for B S Achar, the well-known photo-journalist and also served as cinematographer for a series pf short films on Adult Literacy directed by the pioneer of the ‘New Wave’ in Kannada cinema.

Having been one of the early entrants in the field of professional Videography and Digital Cinema he contributed enormously through his creative involvement in the making of innumerable promotional films, documentaries and TVCs.

G S Bhaskar made his debut as cinematographer with Girish Kasaravalli’s maiden telefilm, Bannada Vesha (1988) produced by Doordarshan Kendra.

Since then he has continued to serve the cause of meaningful cinema in Kannada as well as Hindi.

He has worked as the cinematographer with many renowned filmmakers including M. S. Sathyu, Sai Paranjpye and Nagesh Kukunoor.

He is one of the pioneers of the format of tele-serials in Kannada and worked as the Director of Photography on the much-acclaimed tele-serial, Dodmane (1988) telecast on Doordarshan, Bangalore.

His work as the Director of Photography was instrumental in making the tele-serial Guddada Bhootha, a household name and a rage in coastal Karnataka in the early 1990s.

Guestline Days by Mohena Singh was another teleserial on which he served as Director of Photography.

Bhaskar has been bestowed with the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Cinematographer twice for Nagamandala (1997) & Koormavatara (2011).

Bhaskar is one of the Jury members of 68th National Film Awards 2020.