Conducted with Knight Pictures and led by cinematographer Garry Singh, with Canon, Aputure and Hollyland on board, the two-day programme filled up so fast that registrations had to be closed early — with participants travelling in from multiple states.
afaqs! partner content06 Aug 2026
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On the first weekend of August, one of the region’s largest studio floors was not shooting a commercial. It was teaching. Fifty filmmakers — students, assistant directors, cinematography aspirants and young professionals, many from outside Delhi NCR — spent two full days inside Cellar Door Studio Threefor theCinematic Storytelling Bootcamp, the most ambitious programme yet fromThe Academy at Cellar Door. The response settled any question about demand: the bootcamp ran to a full house, and registrations had to be stopped ahead of the event.
Developed in collaboration withKnight Picturesand led by celebrated Director of PhotographyGarry Singh— an official Canon Cinema empanelled mentor — the bootcamp was powered byCanon, Aputure and Hollyland, whose cinema cameras, professional lighting and wireless systems were in participants’ hands throughout, with the brands’ experts on the floor.
Three programmes in, one thesis proven
The Academy was piloted in December 2025 withDesigning for Film, a production design workshop led byAkshita Hans— founder of Story of Spaces and art director on the critically acclaimedStree. It was followed by aProjection Workshop with Mr. S.P.S. Kalra, a deep dive into an under-taught corner of the craft with one of its most respected specialists. The bootcamp is the third programme — and the first to deploy the full production infrastructure and industry network available to Cellar Door.
The Academy’s December 2025 pilot: Akshita Hans on designing for film, inside the studio where the films were shot.
“The production design workshop allowed us to test the idea of creating a learning environment within an active production ecosystem. With this bootcamp, we took that idea forward at a much larger scale — and the response, with registrations closing early and participants travelling in from other states, told us the region has been waiting for exactly this.”
— Rishav Rastogi, Co-founder, Cellar Door Productions
From the brief to the set — and into participants’ hands
Day one moved from pre-production and the director’s interpretation of a script to the cinematographer’s approach to lighting, lenses, framing and movement. Participants toured the studio and watched two contrasting setups lit from scratch: a filmic living-room scene and an advertising-style product shoot — a live demonstration of how visual choices change with narrative, mood and format.
Crews gather around the living-room setup as it is lit and shot on the studio floor.
Day two put the floor in participants’ hands: a bedroom day-to-night transformation, followed by group practicals where crews lit, modified and shot their own setups, and sessions by Knight Pictures on equipment selection and production decision-making. The programme closed with a panel on career paths, industry practices and opportunities — and selected participants are now being considered for internship and production-assistant opportunities on Cellar Door’s advertising shoots.
Equipment and workflow sessions on the floor, with brand partners present through both days.
What makes The Academy difficult to replicate is everything behind it. Cellar Door’s access to multiple studio environments — including Studio Three, part of the region’s largest studio network — is backed by more than a decade of end-to-end production experience across films, advertising and branded content, and a working network of directors, cinematographers, production designers, technicians, equipment partners and post-production professionals. Every workshop draws directly on that muscle. The environment is the curriculum.
Cellar Door Studios: four studios across two cities — pre-lit, ready to roll, open 24×7.
The studio network — four studios across two cities, pre-lit and available round the clock — is detailed atwww.cellardoorstudios.in.
“There is a great deal of technical information available today, but access to the actual process of professional image-making remains limited. We wanted participants to see how decisions are made on set, how departments work together and how creative intent is shaped by real production conditions — and over these two days, they didn’t just see it, they did it.”
— Sourav Bangotra, Co-founder, Cellar Door Productions
A larger vision — and a wider reach
The Academy has been conceived as a recurring, practice-led platform rather than a conventional film school — and Cellar Door confirms it is expanding the vertical. Future programmes are expected to span direction, cinematography, production design, editing, sound and post-production, and are announced on its Instagram handle,@theacademyatcellardoor. The Academy will also take its programmesonlinefor a wider national audience — a natural next step for a platform whose physical events were already drawing participants from well beyond NCR.
Taken together, it amounts to one of the biggest steps yet for practical creative education in Delhi NCR: a sustained bridge between emerging filmmakers and the professional production industry, built on real studio environments, professional equipment and working crews.
Inside Studio Three during the bootcamp’s night-narrative sessions.
“The idea is not only to teach techniques, but to help people understand how a professional set thinks and functions. We want the Academy to bring craft, discipline, industry exposure and hands-on learning together — and make this region set-ready, not just certificate-ready.”
— Rishav Rastogi, Co-founder, Cellar Door Productions
Upcoming programmes at The Academy at Cellar Door are announced on Instagram at@theacademyatcellardoor. More on the studios atwww.cellardoorstudios.in.
Cellar Door Studios
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