Looks like cinematographer Siddharth is a happy man these days. He is looking forward to his upcoming period flick Aravaan that has been shot fully in the digital format with a high-end Red One camera.

Vasanthabalan, known for his sensitive themes, directs the movie, which is set in the 18th century.
Talking about the need for using Red One, Siddharth says, "Vasanthabalan's script had a huge canvas and only a camera like Red One can capture the grandeur on screen.

Secondly, except Aadhi, Pasupathy and a few others, there are about hundred newcomers cast in the film.

They were all facing the camera for the first time in their life. With a normal camera, we would have ended up wasting a lot of film reels." Siddharth, a former assistant to Bollywood biggie Govind Nihalani, says that a huge action block that appears in the pre-interval portion of the movie and which was canned in Andhra after shooting for seven days, was a most difficult and challenging one.
Another highlight of Siddharth's cinematography is that he has shot most of the film in natural light to get that raw feel.

"The flashback portions were shot in Kuttralam." On his friendship with Nayanthara when he was part of her film Yaaradi Nee Mohini, he says, "She is a very warm person. She was so happy with my work and presented me an iPod."

Aravaan has been sent to the National Award committee to be included in the 2011-released category.