Cinematographer and special effects coordinator Peter Pereira died today at the age of 93. He was blind for about twenty years. Pareira rose to fame when he worked as a special effects coordinator on Anil Kapoor's 'Mr India'. He later went on to work on movies like 'Ajooba' and 'Border'.
Interestingly, Pareira had worked as a cinematographer on a number of films of Amitabh Bachchan including 'Mard', 'Shehenshah', 'Ajooba', 'Toofan' and 'Lal Baadshah'. Abhishek Bachchan mourned the death of the cinematographer. AB tweeted, "Our industry lost a legend today. #PeterPereira was a pioneer in Cinematography in our films. One of the greatest! I remember him fondly from the sets of my father’s films that I visited as a child. Kind, loving, dignified and brilliant. Rest in Peace, sir."
Interestingly, Peter also had a special apperance in 'Amar Akbar Anthony'. Pareira has also worked on other movies like 'Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi' and Shah Rukh Khan-Divya Bharti starrer 'Dil Aashna Hai'.
He got his first job at Basant Studio in Chembur owned by Homi Wadia. He worked there and did odd jobs at first, like setting up camera and other menial tasks. Peter was last seen in filmmaker Hemant Chaturvedi's documentary, 'Chhayaankan'. The film profiled 14 cinematographers who worked in Hindi films between the 1950s and the 2000s.