Reality check: What you need to know about filmmaking

LIGHTS, CAMERA: If the big screen amazes you, visiting a film set can be quite a revelation.

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Mumbai: Sujoy Ghosh is on the sets of his third film Alladin. It is the last leg of shooting at the Mehboob studios in Mumbai but work is at a frantic pace, just as it was during the very first shot.

Sujoy, the director who makes sense of all the madness, plays many roles everyday — from being a punching bag one minute to a taskmaster the next.

Sujoy's first film, Jhankaar Beats, had no major stars but it still was a huge hit.

It is hard to imagine then, that Sujoy has had no formal training in cinema. He, however, has a management degree, which he says has proved to be quite handy.

“Direction is really all about managing the various aspects of cinema,” he reveals, but admits that having some knowledge of cinema does indeed help.

“I always feel that if you know what you want to do, then a basic education to help build a strong foundation always helps,” Sujoy says underlining the importance of good training.

And here is where you can get that training. FTII Pune, followed by the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata, are some of the most prestigious film school in India.

Other options include Foundation Institute for Learning Media (FILM) in Delhi and Subhash Ghai's much-publicised Whistling Woods International.

But before you decide on going headlong into film direction, here’s a reality check of Sujoy's world.

“This whole war is about getting the audience to listen to your story and like it. It is after all a high-risk high-reward profession,” he explains.

For someone who has always been bedazzled by how good everything looks on the big screen, visiting a film set can prove to be quite a revelation.

Somewhere in the middle of all this chaos, the director looks for that perfect expression, that perfect shot.