48 of Bollywood's hottest stars, and one hotshot photographer -- the result, reports Patcy N, is a calendar for the ages.
Over five years and an incredible body of glamour work, Daboo Ratnani established a reputation as one of the country's best in the field -- and on the back of that, launched his first calendar starring Bollywood stars.
Heading into the tenth anniversary of arguably the most sought after glamour calendar in the business, Ratnani decided to commemorate the anniversary with a blockbuster -- 48 of the leading actors and actresses, four to a month, photographed as only he can.
Any Bollywood insider will tell you that getting dates from stars is an incredibly complex, occasionally heart-breaking process; multiply the degree of difficulty by 48 and you get a sense of what Ratnani was up against.
Work began last August, with meetings with the stars and brainstorming sessions on the individual look and feel of each shoot. Shooting began in November, continuing through December; on occasion, he shot as many as three different stars on a day. An exhausting process, Ratnani says: work begins in the pre-dawn hours; each shoot has its own logistical challenges of setting up the appropriate backdrops, factoring in make-up time, the actual shoot and the occasional reshoot to get things just so...
It would have helped, he says, to be able to space them out -- but with stars, you don't adjust dates to suit your convenience, but theirs. So if two high profile stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta happen to have free time on the same day, you take it, smile, and somehow go through the grind.
The shortest shoots, Ratnani recalls, were those of Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan; the longest was Neil Nitin Mukesh, which took four hours since the actor had to sport a tattoo in the shot, and getting it applied was a time-consuming process.
The ace photographer picks five from the 48-image calendar to share with India Abroad readers.
Over five years and an incredible body of glamour work, Daboo Ratnani established a reputation as one of the country's best in the field -- and on the back of that, launched his first calendar starring Bollywood stars.
Heading into the tenth anniversary of arguably the most sought after glamour calendar in the business, Ratnani decided to commemorate the anniversary with a blockbuster -- 48 of the leading actors and actresses, four to a month, photographed as only he can.
Any Bollywood insider will tell you that getting dates from stars is an incredibly complex, occasionally heart-breaking process; multiply the degree of difficulty by 48 and you get a sense of what Ratnani was up against.
Work began last August, with meetings with the stars and brainstorming sessions on the individual look and feel of each shoot. Shooting began in November, continuing through December; on occasion, he shot as many as three different stars on a day. An exhausting process, Ratnani says: work begins in the pre-dawn hours; each shoot has its own logistical challenges of setting up the appropriate backdrops, factoring in make-up time, the actual shoot and the occasional reshoot to get things just so...
It would have helped, he says, to be able to space them out -- but with stars, you don't adjust dates to suit your convenience, but theirs. So if two high profile stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta happen to have free time on the same day, you take it, smile, and somehow go through the grind.
The shortest shoots, Ratnani recalls, were those of Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan; the longest was Neil Nitin Mukesh, which took four hours since the actor had to sport a tattoo in the shot, and getting it applied was a time-consuming process.
The ace photographer picks five from the 48-image calendar to share with India Abroad readers.
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