Sonakshi is someone who is a treat to work with. She is in a Reza Shariffi gown. In this picture we have done a lot of post work and created this whole effect of her floating through space. The way her gown is flying, the way she has used her hands combined with her expressions just works very well. I wanted a strong blue more like a midnight blue only because of the space that the picture is in. It has got this feel that she is more in the outer space than in the sky and the colours of her gown really help. It all fits together very well.
Ace photographer Subi Samuel has been in the industry for over a decade and has worked with all the top notch stars. One of India's leading photographers, Subi is known for trying to bring out a new element in each of his photographs.
Bollywood Hungama's Divya Rajani met up with Subi Samuel at his studio, where he picked some of his best clicked photographs and gave details about each. Subi had a hard time selecting his favourite pictures from his wide collection as each of his photographs has something new and beguiling about it. Take a look at the first part of this Bollywood Hungama exclusive.
Sushmita Sen
This photo was a part of the 'I AM She' campaign that we did with Sushmita. Sushmita has these different props that she collects when she is traveling across the globe and this hat was a part of her props. We decided to use this hat in the picture and the rest just started falling into place. In Sushmita's case most of the time she does her styling herself. This shot has also been styled by Sushmita and her make up was done by Mahinder. What I have done here is that I have predominantly used one light on the face. I have gone on a height, I think I was standing on a ladder or a stool and that is how I got this angle. Sushmita is looking to the right with this shadow on one side. There is this light from the back so that we get some kind of a separation between the shoulder and the fingers as oppose to the background. It is a great close up and that is why I like this picture so much.
Akshay Kumar is a photographer's delight. He comes up with a lot of ideas on his own and gets involved in the shot. Even in this shot, the grease that he has used, he went into details on how and where it should be applied. He is someone who gets into a lot of detail, he likes to do different things and experiments a lot with his look. The idea of using oil was his, my thought was to use only grease but it was his idea to enhance it by using oil. He is by far one of the best people to shoot with in the industry in terms of contribution to a photographer. The only other guy who contributes at that level is Hrithik Roshan.
This was my second shoot with Hrithik Roshan, so it is relatively an old picture but what I like about this picture is that you don't see Hrithik's face and yet you know that it is Hrithik Roshan. One morning I woke up with this thought and I knew that the best person to do this would be Hrithik. I do a lot of scribbles when I have to meet an actor. I showed the scribble to Hrithik and he was like 'Lets do it immediately'. He was not at all apprehensive that his face would be covered. I had to prepare this photograph before and we did this shoot in half an hour.
This shot was taken when we were shooting for a cola commercial. It was a close-up shot. Mr. Bachchan was moving his hand and I just got the thought that it would be a great idea to just cover the face and let the beard show. He is such an iconic, respected and reputed figure that even if his face is covered people still recognize him. The fact that in a black and white picture also there is so much character is what I love about this picture.
