For this Sunday, permit me to pull the focus away from stars, to the high-glam photographers. Or the image maestros who make the stars. Few know, for instance, that the visual of the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol jhappi over the backdrop of mustard fields for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was lovingly lensed by the late Gautam Rajadhyaksha.

Ditto the visuals for the posters of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Se and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun..!
Admittedly, I’m super-sentimental about Gautam Rajadhyaksha aka Gautiya, who also shot hordes of covers for Filmfare when I was editing the magazine. Without him, I wouldn’t have grasped the basics of glam-photography, which in a way extends to filmmaking. He’d use soft-focus lenses, at times, to cover the warts and blemishes of everyone from Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi to Kajol and Asha Bhosle, but he’d huff, “What’s wrong with softies? I like to see beautiful faces.”
The competition for top assignments would be lethal among the photographers. And it was rumoured that some of the glam-clicksters would even sell some shots from exclusive sessions to overseas glossy calendars — unethical, sure, but also understandable because magazines paid them a pittance.
I’m far removed from photo-sessiongiri today but on meeting the cool lensdude Subi Samuel who has made stars look gorgeous — particularly Sushmita Sen — I wondered if there were changes in clicking the star pack. Not the sort to snipe and jibe, Subi did concede, “It’s very different today. Once a few staffers from a magazine’s or film production office would be around. Now there’s a crazy crowd of agents and publicists!”
So are the stars he clicked still in touch with him? Subi responds with a half-smile as if to say “no comments.”
Suresh Natarajan, the genius image-maker, is on to international ad campaigns, and has no time or inclination to network with the Bollywood frontliners, although his photos of Shah Rukh Khan draw an insane number of downloads on the Internet. Dabboo Ratnani is in the star loop though, evident from the sizeable star attendance at his calendar launches.
Rakesh Shreshta, responsible for discovering Manisha Koirala, I hear has now diverted to real estate deals. But his son, Rohan, is among the new hotshots on the scene. His style varies from his dad’s naughty (read oomphy) approach. Indeed, Shreshtha Sr had the gift of the gab, convincing the most prudish of heroines to travel down the cleavage-and-midriff route.
I didn’t deal much with Atul Kasbekar of the Kingfisher calendar fame. But from all accounts his Bling agency is rocking: He has a roster of fresh talent on his agency. Deepika Padukone he promoted zealously. Ashok Salian, another specialist in enhancing star appeal, remains unchanged. His robust laughter sees him through every delay and star tantrum. For a while, he was the favourite of Rekha, a fetishist for publicity stills. Now if Ma’am Re has moved on from Salian, it’s her loss entirely. Her recent pics just don’t have the same allure or mystique.
The photographers I have talked about are artists in their own right, and have moved felicitiously to the digital medium. They have archives of super pictures. But I worry. “Gautiya” has gone, his photos forgotten in the cabinets. A pity, because they’re priceless.
In the year of the Centenary of Cinema, though, has anyone given even a passing thought to the fact that the photographs are an integral part of cinema history? Instead of spending lakhs and crores at blah-blah seminars, how about a campaign for Save the Photo-graphs?