"Maximum growth of a photographer or any artiste is when you do work at your pace, for yourself," says gifted photographer Dabboo Ratnani who is reveling in the tremendous feedback for his 2014 annual calendar. "This calendar keeps me so excited, fired up, I really want to outdo my previous work," Dabboo told Bollywood Hungama's Faridoon Shahryar in an exclusive interview where he spoke about a few of the pictures from his 15th Calendar. "Special thing for this calendar is that I bumped up the production value of each picture. I've experimented a lot in terms of locations, going outdoors, created sets. I've shot at petrol pumps, garages, Marriott, film city, outdoor. The lights are imported from Germany. The sharpness, the clarity, the camera, I've invested a lot," Dabboo said. In the first of the two part slideshow of Dabboo Ratnani's 2014 Calendar, we exclusively bring you six sparkling images of some of the established superstars and some promising enterprising newcomers.
Salman Khan
Salman's picture was shot at Mehboob studio. I think most of his life, Salman lives between home, Panvel and Mehboob studio. It's important to shoot actors in their comfort zone. Salman's picture reminds me of a portrait of Dharmendra in the 60s where a half lit picture, slight light on the other side, black and white; it reminds me of a classic portrait. It's a Hollywood or Bollywood 60s portrait.
Varun Dhawan
I told him imagine as if you're in Manhattan, a stockbroker at Wall Street, you're going to work and are running late, you've grabbed your coffee and probably might have gone surfing in the morning, he's got a surfboard which he takes to work on a skateboard, picks up his coffee from Starbucks. This was shot outside the Starbucks at Horniman Circle. We shot at 7 in the morning, it was beautiful. The shot looks interesting, actors on the street; I don't think you see that very often. The lighting is very soft and hazy, the winter morning feel, there's a blur look to the backdrop.
Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka is great energy. The day when this picture was shot, the previous day she was in Dubai, takes a night flight, arrives here in the morning, comes and reports for an Add film, shoots the whole day and finishes at 1 in the night and then we do this shoot. She is the most energetic person at 1 in the morning; you don't feel that this girl has had a crazy day. She's too brilliant. Priyanka does a lot of selfies. I've seen a lot of her Instagram pictures. If you look at the picture closely, she's actually shooting a selfie with this camera as well. We've actually used nine pictures in this picture. It's a great fashion shot, it's really sexy, hot, lots of energy, as if she's talking to the camera.
Read More">Katrina Kaif I’ve always done a fashion shoot with Katrina in the last few years. This year I thought let me change the format a bit because the people I’ve always done long shots of I can try some close ups. I’ve tried to change the composition rather than giving the similar mood that I’veRead More
Katrina Kaif
I've always done a fashion shoot with Katrina in the last few years. This year I thought let me change the format a bit because the people I've always done long shots of I can try some close ups. I've tried to change the composition rather than giving the similar mood that I've been giving before. With Katrina it's a really tight close-up, she's got a stunning face. It's got a lot of wind-blown look to it, nice sexy expression and because she has such a stunning face, the composition works on its own. It's beautiful.
Deepika Padukone
Anaita (Shroff Adajania) and me sat down and worked down the look. Make up, hair, the outfit was brilliant. We decided to create this set where she's in the middle of this big film studio. Everything goes into darkness, she's with this dressing mirror, there's antique film lights used in 70s and 80s, and the whole mood was cinematic. The dressing table was put in the middle of all this equipment and Deepika looked stunning.
