‘I shot the scuba diver’

Bangalore Mirror: ‘I shot the scuba diver’
Bhushan Bagadia is not just any other videographer. He shoots underwater, juggling breathing and buoyancy issues to get that perfect shot

What makes filmmaker Bhushan Bagadia different from the rest? Try underwater filming for size. Having just finished shooting the beaches of Karnataka for a travelogue project, Bhushan added one segment of underwater filming that's bound to impress viewers.

"Many people had told me that Indian waters are murky with low visibility, so I needed to check that out. When we were shooting the beaches along the Karwar-Mangalore coast, I thought to include Netrani Island which can be reached by boat from Murudeshwar in North Kanara district. And the diving experience there was beautiful," says Bhushan.

It was his first dive in the Indian waters though he's dived in UK, Thailand and Australia.

Bhushan is a trained rescue diver and is now raring to go to the next level of a diving master. "As an underwater filmmaker, you don't have to be a good swimmer. But diving training is essential. One needs to be at least a rescue diver (the first two levels are the open water and advanced open water diver courses) to go in water and shoot. I am also a certified underwater videographer for which I trained in Koh Tao in Thailand which is called the scuba diving capital of the world. We started with making souvenir shots of first-time divers," says Bhushan. He first learned diving in Cornwall, UK, along with his sister who discontinued midway as the water was too cold. "I never miss a chance to point that out to her though she got to complete the course in the Red Sea which was amazing," he says.

Underwater filming is similar yet very different from filming on land. The cameras used are same but, as Bhushan explains, "The costing becomes almost double as we need to have the specific 'housing' (cover) for the camera which costs the same as the camera. One gets positively buoyant housing that float up if it slips from your grasp and the negatively buoyant housing that gently goes down if left free. For me, the negatively buoyant housing works since it is heavy, strong and gives a steady shot."

It takes, however, more than the housing for those steady shots. "You must remember that in water, unlike land, you can't steady the camera by standing still. It is with the breathing that the camera is made steady," Bhusan explains.

Breathing in makes the diver lighter (as air goes in) and go up while breathing out makes the diver go down. You almost feel "like a fish" and the body is turned with controlled breathing and light fin kicks. Touching the floor of the sea means a swirl of sand which is "so very fine" and zero visibility. "An underwater videographer learns to hover 2 feet above the ground — nothing below that," Bhushan reveals a trick of the trade.

And yes, the 'fish part' can be deceptive. Even though diving is a little difficult to learn initially, once you master it you can never forget it - just like cycling. "Divers need to watch the air gauge — a 50 bar reading means the diver needs to surface up. Once when my BCD (buoyancy control device) had a leak, I didn't realise it and when I was at my mandatory safety stop (a three-minute transition stop at about 5 metres from the surface to combat the effects of decompression), the air had finished and I had to rush out. As a rescue diver, I took the precautions but that's when one realises that we aren't fish men!" says Bhushan.

And coming back to Netrani, Bhushan speaks of how in spite of being a little low on visibility, the footage was beautiful. "On a good day, the visibility can be 15-20 metres which is more than Koh Tao that is about 13 metres. I saw big groupers and reef sharks. Other divers have mentioned seeing empty shells supposedly fired as target practice by the navy. But there is a greenish tinge, may be due to the plankton present or the camera used but with a little colour correction, the footage was exactly how I saw it — crystal clear!"