It’s not every day that you get a call to fly to Mumbai to shoot with Amitabh Bachchan himself. Especially when you are still getting over another shooting spell with maestro Ilaiyaraja.
“I was so pleasantly surprised when I got a call from an advertising agency to shoot with Mr. Bachchan for a jewellery brand. He was the brand ambassador and had shot for most part of the day for the brand’s ad film, ahead of the photo shoot. In spite of that he was full of energy and appeared visibly excited about the photo shoot,” says ace photographer G. Venket Ram.
It’s a day he will never forget. “We did about six outfit changes in record time... well-made suits and a few stylish jackets in interesting colours. All thanks to Mr. Bachchan who changed within minutes and was ready for the shot almost instantly. He was all panache and style posing with props for the camera.”
Venket recalls that Bachchan Senior was eager to check out the pictures and asked for some of the more candid ones to be sent to him right away to be posted on his Twitter account and blog page.
“He was in a jovial mood, cracking jokes and making the shoot fun. His sense of style and presence is striking. It’s a memory I will cherish, shooting with the legend that he is,” he says.
Does he hope to cross over to the world of ad films now that he had shot with pretty much everyone from Rajinikanth to Amitabh Bachchan and Ilaiyaraja, especially as digital still and video cameras converge?
“I would love to. But for the photo shoots, we just use a medium range high resolution professional camera.” But for now, Venket has his hands full shooting for ads and publicity stills for films and high profile calendar shoots with the best of actors.
