Priya Seth


Priya Seth is an Indian cinematographer, best known for her work in Indian feature films, advertisements and underwater filming and photography. She is among a handful of women cinematographers working in the Indian mainstream cinema.

Early life

Seth was born in Amritsar, India and was schooled at Cathedral and John Connon School and Welham Girls' School, a boarding school in Dehradun. After school, she pursued a degree in economics at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, and then later went on a six-month film-making course at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Career

Early career

After graduating, Seth got her first job as a clapper and assistant cameraman on Deepa Mehta's 1998 film Earth, followed by Jane Campion's Holy Smoke!, which was partially filmed in India, in 1999.
After that, she worked on diverse projects such as music videos, commercials for FMCG brands, before returning to the cinema industry. Seth is a trained scuba diver and is known for her expertise in her underwater filming and photography. She has been the underwater DOP for Bollywood films like Dhobi Ghat and Mardaani 2.

Feature films

Seth's first solo feature film project was the indie Barah Aana, directed by Raja Krishna Menon and starring Naseeruddin Shah. She reunited with Menon on his 2016 historical drama film, Airlift, starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur. The film was noted for its bold, raw and tense camerawork depicting the real events on which the film was based. She then worked on the Saif Ali Khan-starrer Chef, an official remake of the 2014 Hollywood film. In 2018, Seth shot the Season 2 of Zee5 web series Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story of Sunny Leone, a show based on the life of former porn star-turned-actor Sunny Leone.
In 2017, Seth became the founding member of the Indian Women Cinematographer's Collective, along with cinematographers Fowzia Fathima and Savita Singh.

Filmography

Feature films

Web series