Incidentally, Kewal Sharma has edited and directed films like Badla Aur Balidan, Maalamaal, Plot No.5 and Chakkar Pe Chakkar and produced-directed and edited Sindoor Ki Keemat. Asked why directors need also to be apt at editing, Sharma quips, "Since an editor has an idea of the exact footage to be used in the final edit, his visualization will save on cost, stock and time. If the director is apt at the art of editing, he would definitely help in the economics of filmmaking".

"For a film editor, it is a cause for amusement that film reviewers are never able to highlight his contribution. If a film is described as very effectively cut but otherwise long and boring, the editor knows that the film not only may have contained conspicuous transitions of scenes that were invented during the shooting or in the scriptwriting, but also that the editing was ineffective. On the other hand, many editors tend to ignore the fact that the concrete process of editing is not identical with film editing in general and that film editors are not the only ones to contribute to the editing of the film", says Rameshwar S Bhagat, this year's recipient of Star Screen Awards for his work in Dhoom. His first encounter in films came with Kareeb when his guide and mentor Rajkumar Hirani was making its promo. Later, along with Hirani, he also did the promos of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. He was to assist Hirani in the editing for Mission Kashmir but his freelance assignments kept him away from being associated. Knowing the potential of Rameshwar, Hirani signed him as an associate editor for Munnabhai MBBS. "He wanted me to do the entire rough cut of the film," avers Rameshwar. After the stupendous success of Munnabhai MBBS Sanjay Gadhvi approached Hirani to edit his venture for Yash Raj Films, but since Hirani was now an established director, he suggested the name of Rameshwar. "Dhoom was my first film as an editor and I am glad that I had a banner like Yash Raj Films to give me my first break.

While editing Dhoom, the brief given to me by Aditya Chopra and Sanjay Gadhvi was that the film should be fast-paced and a roller-coaster ride for the audience and the good thing was that I was lucky enough when they gave me full freedom to take my editing liberties which only few editors get. With Dhoom, I was able to experiment a lot, thanks to Avid and Adobe Photoshop without which it was not possible to design some of the transitions, split screens and ramps which we used in the film, as these effects were roughly designed on Avid and finally recreated by Tata Elexi at their studio. That is the reason why it wouldn't be possible to edit this film on Steenbeck. Most of the action scenes were shot with multiple camera setups that added to my benefit. Because of this, the idea of using split screens took place, except one split screen none of the others were planned at the shooting stage. Only after editing those scenes, we realized that they were not working, so Aditya Chopra told me to rethink about the editing pattern and that's how splits were designed. Also editing Dhoom was a lengthy process because most of the chase sequences were shot at random like montage rushes so editing options were lots and also since they used multiple cameras, I had to deal with hours of footage, like the climax chase which they shot in Goa had five hours of footage while the sequence after editing had to be of approximately eight minutes. After the first cut of the first half, we realized that film didn't have the pace which was needed and the length of the first half was 1 hour 25 minutes and so that's the time when most of the transitions from one scene to the other were designed and which added to the editing style of the film. Other major problems while editing Dhoom was that of the deadline, we were running out of time so whenever I was designing any effects I had to keep time in mind, because all the effects done on Avid were only for reference purpose, the guys at Tata had to recreate those and send it for confirmation (process which involves checking the duration and frames of the effects done s matching exactly with the Avid edit) which use to squeeze on deadline".

"The phenomenon of editing deals with all aspects of filmic rhythm - from the transition of one image to another or the detailed musical rhythm in a small sequence of edits, to the most general balancing of pace and rhythm in the overall narrative structure. Editing is a means of expression, with its own language," says Somnath Kar, now making his presence felt in both Tollywood and in Bangladesh also. "Creative decisions that are made in each phase of the process of filmmaking have an influence on the editing process. When the script is being written, the scriptwriter creates the psychology of the characters and their mutual relations and actions as integrated parts of the dramatic structure of the film. The scriptwriter works to incorporate the physical surroundings as a means of expression for the characters and the plot. On the set, many of the cinematographic effects that were invented in the script are carried out, and new ones are inspired by the physical environment and its visual and auditive potential.

The director decides where to use the master shot technique (master shots and close-ups for each character, the foundation for cross-cutting) and where to use the sequence shot technique (where the action of a scene is covered by a single shot until a new shot takes over the action that follows). Also the staging of scenes is often combined with the making of a storyboard in order to foresee how the individual images will fit together. It is one of the director's central tasks on the set to deal with this chaotic reality and to strive to recreate the script's original intentions in this: a 'second writing' of the film. Not until the editor begins to assemble the different images of the film, is it clear whether - and to what degree - the intentions of the script have survived the shooting", Kar says adding, "Making a film is a team work, where a director is the chief architect. An editor builds a bridge between the director and the audience. More is the perfection, smoothness; strength of the bridge more is the clarity of the film. As the goalkeeper is the last defense of a football team, an editor too is the last defense to save the film from every hurdle. When I came to the industry as an assistant editor, the first lesson I got from my 'guru' Ramesh Joshi was that 'keeping is the first step of editing'. From then onwards, I try my best to perfect in keeping while editing".

"An editor can raise the performance of a new artiste while on the other he can make a good artiste look a junior artiste" - Ashfaque Makrani

Storytelling in films constantly deals with breaking and creating continuity, as all films are based on fragments of reality (constructed or real). It is obvious that if you want to explain an epic in 90 or 120 minutes, you have to be very precise in what direction the camera is pointed and when it is turned on. The challenge to the storyteller begins in the creation of sufficient continuity throughout the film for the spectator to feel that he is watching a continuous story and not disconnected fragments, and as to Bunty Nagi, the best tool in overcoming the problems of discontinuity is to imitate human perception and to let the imagination of the spectator the editor become a co-narrator. Nagi, incidentally, has had his training from Rajtaru Videosonic Ltd. where he worked in the editing department for seven years. For the studio, he did several advertisement campaigns and compiled music videos. His first encounter with films came with Sanjay Gupta's Kaante. In fact, the pre-production work he did for Kaante fetched him a RAPA award. Nagi also got himself a prestigious award for his editing skills in Kaante. He followed up his success working for Plan, Rohit Shetty's Zameen, Rakht and Musafir.

"It is the task of the editor to structure the build up every single moment of a scene and put those moments together into a whole with all the possibilities involved in the scriptwriting and the shooting - this can be a lot (if the story structure gives many possibilities to reverse the order of the scenes, or if the scenes contain cross cutting). In any case, the editing creates the flow and energy in the scenes and builds the scenes into sequences. This (re) creation of the general narrative structure is known as the third writing of the film", quips in Chirag Jain, Nagi's asociate.

The overall narrative structure of a feature film is, of course, primarily conceived in the script. But during editing, it often happens that you cut out some of the characters or some of the sub-plots. And an often-used 'emergency tool' in the editing room is to insert a narrator or character voice-over.

A film can be seen as a series of thoughts. The editor helps the audience by determining how long each of these thoughts are; how long the audience is going to think about any given thing. And ideally, the audience would never notice the editing of such a scene, because they would blink simultaneously with the cuts.

"Editing creates the flow and energy and builds scenes into sequences" - Bunty Nagi

In recent years, 'film editing' has come to mean what a 'film editor' does, even though the work involved is now performed on a computer-based non-linear editing system, such as Avid, Lightworks or Speed Razor and, at the semi-professional level, by programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Pinnacle Edition or Edius. If the end product is to be a traditional movie, the final negative cutting list is produced from the software, and the negative cutting process occurs as before. With the emergence of digital cinema, there is now a movement towards all-digital assembly of the final product.

Editing depends on what type of film one is editing. If it's a commercial or an action film, fast cutting has to be resorted to in order to make the film look fast-paced and sleek. While doing performance-oriented films, it is the editor's job to cut the film according to the performance. "In Nitin Manmohan's Deewangee, we had to cut taking the performance of artistes into consideration and create the right mood," says Ashfaque Makrani, whose last released film was Keshu Ramsay's Insaan and forthcoming release will be Maan Singh Deep's Gehri Chaal.

"In Deewangee, I had to edit according to Ajay Devgan's performance because the transformation of both the characters that he plays had to be brought about convincingly. For this, I had to study the character from the audiences' point of view. For a realistic film like Black, which doesn't require pace, an editor has to cut by the performance of the artistes," Makrani adds.

There are different types of cuts viz the musical cut, silent cut, overlapping cut, parallel cut (two scenes happening at the same time). Another type of cutting in which the editor can play with the images is the one that deals with the motion of the shots-known as vamping motion effects.

"As a goalkeeper is the last defense of a football team, an editor too is the last defense to save the film from every hurdle" - Somnath Kar

"Deewangee was a film based on split personality where Ajay Devgan keeps on changing his personality from an innocent to a violent person. Here, editing had to be based on his performance because the transformation between his personalities had to be very convincing. This exercise needed an in-depth study of the character from the audiences' point of view. In such cases, an editor's job becomes more difficult. For the innocent's role the editing had to be done in a natural way whereas in the violent role we had to create an aura of fear by cutting to the reaction of other characters keeping scope for background music to make its impact. Ajay Devgan won an award for his performance in Deewangee," avers Makrani adding, " A smart editor can help a mediocre performance look good. Importantly, an editor can, in one way, raise the performance of an artiste while on the other can make a good artiste look a junior artiste. In Gehri Chaal, I have raised the performance of Ravi Kissen to make him look more fearful by creating musical pauses and awkward reactions to justify his character".

"If a film is smartly edited, one can repair the flaws of the screenplay shuffling a scene so that eventually the final screenplay looks much better. Indirectly an editor can work his way to have the film to make an impact on the audience" sums up Makrani.