Pavitr Saith praises Bollywood beauties

Lensman Pavitr Saith has been capturing portraits and stills for film posters mainly. However, his trigger-happy moments are spent working on black and white images that simplistically capture the traditional beauty of character.

He recalls being introduced to the art by his father during his formative years. “I don’t try to ‘fit in’ or follow the crowd. I try to remain calm, so I can sense the subtle beauty that surrounds me. I do this by keeping my head uncluttered, travelling and looking for fresh ideas,” says Pavitr.

His advice to amateur photographers is not to fuss over gadgets. He says, “Define your vision first and discover who you are. Photography is not about which camera you have, it’s about how and what you see in the world. So see more, feel deeper and create your own vision.”

‘Vibrant personality’

Sonam Kapoor has an extremely vibrant personality. For this picture, we were trying to get the angle of her body, eyes, the fall of her hair all in conjunction with the light stripes in the background. So it took a couple of takes, but she didn’t complain. I love the way the different coloured lights give distinct shades to different parts of her hair and body, perfectly contrasting with the background, yet not distracting from the natural beautiful aura of her face.

‘Natural warmth’

This was my first shoot with Anushka Sharma. She is very stylish and conveys natural warmth. When she came to the studio, I was told she was apprehensive shooting with me, as we hadn’t worked together. So I took it as a challenge to do a better job than expected, and by end of the day, she loved the results. She is a delight to watch as she is constantly bubbling with energy and displays a plethora of emotions both on and off camera.

‘Deepika has a natural poise’

I love how this image conveys so much drama and emotion without any fancy props, clothes or sets. Deepika has natural poise and she simply lights up the frame when she walks into it. At times, she can sense my awe and the naughty girl in her starts pulling my leg, But all said and done, working with her is pure bliss.

‘My day was over!’

The day we were to shoot, Big B was already juggling media interviews and even shooting a video promo. There was this a time he was giving a shot for the video camera and I walked in to get a still. He called ‘cut’, looked at me and said ‘Sir… please don’t be there. I get disturbed.’ And he pointed his finger to a spot far away for me to go stand. I thought my day was over! Five minutes later, he called me to take my shots. Even though the focus is on the mirror reflection, the actual Amitabh Bachchan in the foreground can be recognised. I love how the eyelevel gives it depth.

‘A quintessential royal portrait’

This picture of Rishi Kapoor is the quintessential royal portrait, which depicts a man’s class and pride — what we call—his

khandaani

heritage. This picture was shot in Greenwich, the place where the 0 hour starts and world time is calculated from. This image adorns one of the walls of his house. We used minimal lighting for this image and extremely simple and elegant styling.