Cinematographer

Always fascinated with the play of colours and visuals around her, Chehek Bilgi knew that visual arts was her calling. She had the privilege of travelling extensively since childhood, especially within rural India and overseas. Picturesque places, cross-cultural interactions and different lifestyles left an indelible mark on her and shaped her thinking of light, colours, shadows as paints and each and every frame as a canvas. Her passion to understand these inter-linkages and intersections led her to work with media and development organisations participating and contributing in range of platforms discussing pertinent development and media issues. Subsequently, her journey as assistant director in a feature film gave her professional and hands-on experience in film-making but her deep interest in cinematography took her to Whistling Woods International where she specialised in cinematography. As part of her graduation, she did International Relations from School of Liberal Studies, PDPU.

 

She is a member of Indian Women Cinematographers Collective (IWCC). She works as a cinematographer, second unit cinematographer, assistant cinematographer.

 

As a DOP some of her films have been acclaimed in film festivals both at national and global levels.

She won an award in cinematography for stop-motion film “Religion for Dummies” from Southern Shorts Award, Georgia USA. Short film “Karma Café” is acclaimed for lighting and camera work and is a finalist as Best Fantasy Short Film at Shorted Film Awards. Marathi Feature Film “Vrutti” has won Audience Choice Best Feature Film award at DC South Asian Film Festival, Washington DC 2022 and acclaimed in film festivals internationally. Kannada feature film “Naanu Ladies” won Best Film Award at DC South Asian Film Festival, Washington DC and Best Narrative Award at KASHISH Film Festival. Her Diploma film “Pehchaan” won Best student film award in Jaipur International film festival. It was also screened at several film festivals such as KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival & 13th Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, USA.

 

She is also engaged with United Nations Major Group of Children and Youth (UNMGCY) and has been involved in Advocacy for Women, Youth and Children and creating visual and digital contents across different themes such as Climate change, Gender Identity, Energy, Water etc.  Her documentary on ‘Solar Energy’ by Youth Energy Academy was screened at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP 25 in Madrid, Spain.