“I didn’t want it to be glamorous. The 2007 Calendar was mostly of bright happy day light pictures. Here we kept it little more dark, warm and with high density,” said celebrated photographer Dabboo Ratnani about his superlative 2008 Calendar featuring 24 hottest Bollywood hunks like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Rampal, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Vivek Oberoi, Shahid Kapoor etc. We at Bollywood Hungama have chosen eight out of these twenty four brilliantly artistic pictures in this exclusive photo feature. Hope you have a great time shining with the stars.
Shahrukh KhanDabboo-Speak: I reached the location and saw the bright blue sky behind me. I placed the mirror and said I want Shahrukh to wear blue & white because there is a white wall and there is blue sky so we will stick to blue & white in this picture.
What-We-Feel: SRK is the flying eagle who knows his destination. There’s style in that flowing white shirt and denims are always in fashion. The stretched hands say…Only I can touch myself, no one can come close to where I am…perched right at the Top.
Neil MukeshDabboo-Speak: It’s a John Woo meets James Bond kind of look. John Woo often uses two guns in most of his action sequences and the look, the styling was very James Bond. I just gave this idea to Neil. He has got an international look about him. I thought he fitted the concept beautifully.
What-We-Feel: The killer cool dude attitude rests lightly on Neil’s shapely shoulders. There’s panache, poise and determination in those hungry eyes. Bollywood…here I came…(by the way…I don’t mind digging into some Hollywood stew either!)
Ranbir KapoorDabboo-Speak: The look is from the movie Cobra starring Sylvester Stallone. We had decided a very very cinematic kind of picture. I told him just imagine that you are in a middle of a chase sequence and you know you leave the steering and you get out of the window and you are trying to fire at the people who are following you. He followed the theme completely. We put up lamp posts, we put up traffic signal, we had car zooming by so we got all the sticks of the lights in the car, the reflection of the car. It was pretty much the largest set up ever done for my calendar pictures. We’ve only seen him in Saawariya. He is one film old. He was a complete lover boy and I thought he could pull of an action sequence really well.
What-We-Feel: We’ve seen him drop (almost) that famous white towel. Now, it’s the turn to see the grungy dirty white vest with a heavy gun resting on that power chest. Rambo-Shades, worker’s faded jeans and a hard, two-day-stubble, in short this fierce look gives Ranbir Kapoor the perfect makeover that the prospective filmmakers would love to latch on to. Now….taste my fire!
Hrithik RoshanDabboo-Speak: We used his shoulder, the blades of his shoulders and shoulder balls where he is on the ground, his head is closed. It’s an unusual angle for Hrithik. We’ve never done this before and the whole cracked look in the fore ground and the whole make up was very gold. It’s a January page so when you open, it’s like a warm nice picture and it hits you in Jan.
What-We-Feel: Chiseled in Gold, this emblem of perfection shocks you with sheer intensity and handsomeness. Laidback seductive eyes are smouldering with ambition and intensity. This one’s a precious metal…And maybe you can’t fix a price on extra special entities. Isn’t it?
Salman KhanDabboo-Speak: With Salman we shot in a farm house. The thought was exactly Marlboro country. Even the treatment of tones that we have used is very warm gold and he is sitting on his own. It’s like a cow boy kind of a setting Marlboro country. Salman fits it beautifully because the whole check shirt, that cowboy hat, that attitude, Salman has it all.
What-We-Feel: While the others try too hard to get noticed by doing something sizzling-n-flashy, this superbly good looking dude can find priceless treasure in a haystack. It’s time he is offered something radically different for this look is worth preserving on celluloid. For the time being he is in a mood-to-chill while the laidback wind sings….Country roads take me home…
Shahid KapoorDabboo-Speak: People have always used him like a chocolate boy kind of look. I didn’t want to do what people expect so I didn’t want to do like a happy smiley picture. I wanted to do a little more rugged look with him where he is in this whole setting of the painter. He has painted the room black & white and he has got a moment off and he is looking down roller in his hand, the painter’s brush all around him. So the idea was to make him look tough, make him look cool. It has a very grungy element to it.
What-We-Feel: It’s a hard life and one need not always have the brightest of shades to paint emotions. The boy in Shahid has matured into an impressive young man who has that impish boyish charm and yet has a tinge of sublime sensibility way beyond his age. Sometimes I find Mauja hi Mauja in doing quiet things under the confines of closed walls.
Rahul BoseDabboo-Speak: I was shooting with Saif and I saw a room where there was a bulb. I looked at the bulb and said I could use this in a different way. People use bulb in picture but I wanna use it like you know the burning filming the tungsten showing and some one’s face really close to it, something really intense. Rahul was my choice because he is unusual for a calendar. You never see Rahul Bose in a calendar. I got him really close to the light bulb. He said should I just lick it? I said great idea let’s try it and he put his tongue on a hot bulb. When I clicked I knew this is the frame and I knew I don’t want any other picture.
What-We-Feel: Rahul Bose dares to be different. When you look at the picture its not as if he is licking danger, rather it seems he is licking Pleasure. The picture has an astoundingly erotic quality to it and that earthy rawness gives it a startling Real feel. Let the ‘fire’works begin…
Vivek OberoiDabboo-Speak: It’s after a fight club kind of scene where Vivek has been through his street fight. He has got blood, grease, it’s dirty all over but he doesn’t care. He just picks up a cigarette, lights it up there. I prefer him with his whole grungy rugged beard long hair. Vivek was one of my first shoots that I did for the calendar because he was traveling to Turkey for his film shoot for three months. When I did the shoot of Vivek, I pretty much was clear that ok this is what I wanted to do and I am going to take this root for the calendar and I wanted it to be dark.
What-We-Feel: Vivek loves to live-on-the-edge. Blood rests easy on his chest-n-shoulders while the unkempt smoke flakes scatter ceaselessly. Somehow he looks best in this grungy, masculine look rather than the clean-shaven mould. These eyes-of-the-tiger are only gunning for success….romance can wait!
Faridoon Shahryar For Bollywood Hungama
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