A teleprompter, half-a-dozen focus lights, a camera, editing machines and plenty of action make up the studio of filmmaker Mike Pandey. Housed in an L-shape hall on the second floor of his Chirag Enclave bungalow in New Delhi, it reflects Pandey’s passion for conservation.

In the huge wooden rack that separates the staircase from the studio are stocked varied artefacts. “I love collecting all that is old and unusual,” Pandey says, as he picks up a metal lantern once used at railway stations. A Kashmiri kangri (a cane basket containing coal, which serves as a portable heater), a jute lamp, books and brass sarotas occupy other sections of the rack.

His studio, Pandey says, changes with each project he takes up. “I keep adding posters and redoing the interiors in sync with the theme we are working on. It creates the perfect environment and stimulates the thought process,” he says. These days, the studio, which opens on to a sun-lit terrace, houses an elephant sculpture and the fossil of a buffalo’s head. “We are working on a documentary on elephants in Chattisgarh,” says the filmmaker.

Pandey has been sharing the studio with his son, a graphic designer, for a decade now. “It is so cozy that I don’t feel the need for a bigger space. The equipment is quite compact and there is enough room for production work. It took me six years to shape it the way it is today,” he says.

Though he frequently does outdoor shoots, Pandey remains attached to his studio. “I always have most of my equipment on me when I travel. So practically, I carry half my workplace with me,” he says.