Making Faces: An interview with legendary Indian Photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha: Prestige magazine exclusive.

Filled with glamorous portraits of Bollywood stars, Faces by Gautam Rajadhyaksha is a big book that unmasks the legends of Indian cinema while deifying them, too. P.Ramakrishnan talks to India’s most sought-after iconographer.

All photos courtesy of Gautam Rajadhyaksha

The Indian film industry is the largest in the world, churning out over 800 films a year, which are screened around the planet. Subtitled and dubbed DVDs go far beyond Hindi-speaking Mumbai, the Mecca of movie musicals that out-dance and out-sing anything reeled off by MGM, Paramount or 20th Century Fox over the past century.

The stars of Bollywood movies are arguably the most famous folks on the planet today. Yet, strangely, there are few books that chronicle them. “Go to any bookstore in America or Europe and there are entire sections dedicated to its film industry,” notes photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha.

“At your average Barnes & Noble, there are voluminous books dedicated to specific genres like horror films, the glamour dolls, Greta Garbo, the Hepburns … and when I look at the Indian fraternity, there’s hardly one decent coffee-table book dedicated to the ‘biggest film industry in the world.’ That prompted me to pen down my thoughts and create Faces.”

Faces, a large-format tome, heralds the cinematic greats of India as no other photo book does. Interspersed with pellucid comments by Rajadhyaksha, 57, a former adman and journalist who’s become Mumbai’s most iconic photographer, the book is a sumptuous treat filled with gorgeous visuals and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. The book, first published in 1997, was updated this year to coincide with an exhibition, also called “Faces,” of his photos in London.

As he has worked with every major Indian actor over the past three decades, forging invaluable relationships with the famed and fortuned, he has been granted exclusive access to a press-wary film federation that’s deeply suspicious of the multitude of tabloids littering the arteries of India.

“Of course there’s a bond between the celebrity and the photographer forged over years and years of working together,” he says. “And I guess they’ve been nicer to me than to your average sound-byte-chasing paparazzi. When I was in London for the exhibition of my photographs just a few weeks ago, the number one question the press there had for me was somehow related to, ‘Who has been the most difficult?’ or ‘Who did you have a run-in with?’ I’m glad to say, none! I’ve been very lucky that there’s never been a confrontation or fight of any sort in my entire career – not with the stars, at least.” 

Indian actress Hema Malini 

With celebrity egos being bigger than the average three hour length of a Hindi film, that seems hard to swallow. But with a gentle laugh he says, “See, in those days, when I first started off, there weren’t so many channels and so many rags in print. And I genuinely wanted to create beautiful images. I always collected classic photographs of people like Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, and I wanted to re-create that aesthetic. I work with great lighting, and of course I’ve been accused of creating soft-focus looks, but I wanted to create memorable portraits for publication. No one took film journalism seriously in the 1980s; the real money was made in advertising. But I’ve been a grand film buff and, while interviewing actors, I also took their pictures. Soon editors wanted my photography more than my writing, and somehow my career went that way.”

Rajadhyaksha has also directed films, written screenplays and launched some of the biggest names in showbiz while creating portfolios with his unmistakable high-gloss finesse.

While many a stardust-glistening star will gladly pose for an Annie Leibovitz or a Richard Avedon half-way across the planet in Hollywood, few Indian celebrities want to strike a pose for posterity in India.

“There are exceptions, like Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan and a few others, who chronicle their career graphs with memorable photo shoots. Indian celebrities don’t have time for shoots. They’re running off from one location to another, and they used to see sitting with a still photographer as a hassle, as a necessary evil for fan-zines. Only some had a passion for it. ‘Oh its just for a magazine,’ they’d say, not realising how important it is to create something for posterity, for the record books. 

Thankfully, the newer generation is aware of the impact of a still picture. The current stars like Shah Rukh Khan [aka the King of Bollywood] chronicles his career with stills and, in a way, his long interviews are a form of therapy for him, trying to understand his mass following and fan base around the globe. A great star for sure, but also a highly intelligent one.”

Looking at a Hollywood counterpart – for example, Leibovitz’ iconic shots of Bette Midler nude on a bed of roses, Whoopi Goldberg in a tub of milk or Sting covered in a thick coat of mud and nothing else – there’s a complete absence of nudity and sexuality in Rajadhyaksha’s family friendly book.

“I have, in my career, photographed models in very sensual poses in the US, the UK, for international publications, but not for India. What works there doesn’t work here. There are sensual images, for sure, but even the title of my book, Faces, suggests where my primary interest and theme lies. The calling card of an actor of any calibre is what they can do with their faces.

“More than any model anywhere, actors are far more interesting to shoot,” declares Rajadhyaksha. “It’s like a document of their personality. They are, by and large, wonderful human beings, very sensitive, more sensitive than any model I’ve ever shot. They are artists who have lived a life of ups and downs. So all those emotions somehow emanate through. Give me an accomplished actor to shoot over any 20-year-old model any day... for there’s something there to be captured.”