So when in the middle of the shooting of Billu Barber Santosh got a call from SRK to come to Mumbai Santosh immediately set aside his own work in Chennai and headed to the mecca of entertainment.
It turned out, SRK wanted the ace-cinematographer to shoot the superstar's entry sequence on a mo-bike accompanied by the pounding sounds of Pritam Chakraborty's Ae aa oh.
Though the cinematographer of Billu is V. Manikanandan, Santosh, who would normally never impinge on a colleague's territory made an exception. For friendship's sake. Quite a homage to a film that celebrates friendship.
Says Santosh, "Shah Rukh asked me to. And no one says no to Shah Rukh. Also, I had shot last for Priyadarshan 12 years ago for Kala Pani. And that film had got me the National award. For Billu I shot Shah's rock scenes where he interacts with fans on a mo'bike. We shot at Mukesh Mills for two days."
Santosh is now planning to direct and shoot a film which Shah Rukh will produce and play the lead in. Says the shy filmmaker, "With Shah it's always special."