Keep still

Actors’ private moments, the first time they step into costume, the dialogues that win them awards—photographers on sets capture it all

With a gun aimed at the man she married only a few months ago, Sehmat Khan’s betrayal unfurls in Meghna Gulzar’s award-winning film Raazi. When this pivotal scene featuring Alia Bhatt’s Sehmat and Vicky Kaushal’s Iqbal Syed was being shot, the environment on set was charged. Still photographer Hitesh Mulani earmarked the exchange the moment he came across it in the script—if merely reading the scene had given him goosebumps, he could only imagine what it would be like to film it. To Mulani’s horror, his camera stopped working 10 minutes before the director could say action. “Thankfully, the DOP on set, Jay Patel, had his own camera, which I used to photograph Bhatt holding the gun. And it became a poster for the film,” Mulani recounts.

In her 22-year-long career as a still photographer, Ishika Mohan Motwane has been guided by the principle that her pictures should accurately represent each film she takes on. PIC/ISHIKA MOHAN MOTWANE

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Mulani is part of a long tradition of still photographers, featuring veterans like Sooni Taraporevala and Ishika Mohan Motwane, who captured the world of film sets. Among the first practitioners of this profession are names like Josef Wirsching, whose documentation of the Bombay Talkies studio in the 1930s and ‘40s, using a pocket-size Leica camera, will be on display at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery through March and early April. As the years pass, the work of legendary photographers like Taraporevala and Wirsching has immense archival value, letting outsiders in on behind-the-scenes action and preserving moments where actors, production designers and lighting experts have triumphed.

Once performing the essential job of helping maintain scene continuity, the still photographer in contemporary times has provided visuals for iconic posters and created character looks leaving fans excited and curious—making them crucial to marketing and publicity departments. mid-day caught up with three still photographers who let us in on stories from sets and the trick that remains timeless in the profession: being an inconspicuous lurker who convinces actors, in sweaty costumes with long schedules, to strike a pose.

Alia Bhatt prepares for a pivotal moment in Raazi. The work of still photographers is archival in nature, giving us a look into behind-the-scenes action before and after a film’s release. PIC/HITESH MULANI

A key tool in the still photographer’s arsenal is understanding the actors’ needs and preferences. Mulani calls the experience of working with Tabu on the spy thriller Khufiya, memorable; he never imagined that he’d have a collaborative relationship with an actor of her stature such that they could objectively discuss a still. “Tabu prefers it when there are fewer people on set. I thought the frame where she is scanning her finger was interesting and mysterious because of the green light that falls on her,” Mulani explains.

Mulani, who has nine years of experience in the profession, responded to Tabu’s hesitation with conviction, and the shot became a reality. A behind-the-scenes picture of the duo shows us how pleased they were with the final result, as Tabu smiles at both Mulani and his camera. “Initially, we took pictures without the green light, and it looked quite flat and dead. I asked the art department to ensure the scanner light is functional, and they acted promptly. We also experimented with where she should look—whether it is at the scanner, or over her shoulder, or at the camera,” Mulani reveals. The suspicious tone of the still was possible only because of Tabu’s expressive face and kajal-streaked, nervous eyes.

In her 22-year-long career as a still photographer, Ishika Mohan Motwane has been guided by the principle that her pictures should accurately represent each film she takes on. PIC/ISHIKA MOHAN MOTWANE

Pouting at the camera, sad at having to leave—Jehangir’s attachment to mum Kareena Kapoor Khan is aptly captured in two tender photographs taken during a shoot schedule in the UK for Hansal Mehta’s upcoming film, The Buckingham Murders. As Kapoor Khan shared these behind-the-scenes pictures on her younger son’s birthday, she thanked Tejinder Singh Khamkha for documenting the moment. “It was her last day of shoot with us, and Jehangir was on set. He diligently found a pen and wrote in a notebook before the camera could roll. The staff was asked to take him back to the van, and he wasn’t keen to leave. She had to walk him back to the van—it was sweet to watch,” says Khamkha, who first began working as a still photographer in 2018.

It was Anurag Kashyap who recognised Khamkha’s talent and brought him onboard the romantic drama Manmarziyaan. At a schedule in Amritsar, Khamkha created an unforgettable picture of Abhishek Bachchan’s Robbie—a turbaned, stoic man—between shots, as it rained outside. In the months before the film’s release, Khamkha observed a shift in the way still photographs were being used. Bachchan, for whom the film was something of a comeback, posted 30 pictures from the sets. “Earlier, the budget of the still photographer used to be included in the production budget. Over the last few years, producers and studios have assigned it to marketing funds. We work with marketing from the very beginning now,” he says.

Khamkha remarks that his work isn’t just about image-making, it is also about forming relationships with the many stakeholders on set. After all, still photographers’ output is moulded by a number of departments, including lighting and production design. This makes Khamkha and his peers first-hand witnesses to the big and small ways in which workplace culture and etiquette are changing. 

These days, it’s not uncommon for moments from films to become memes, and sometimes, their humour is a complete contrast to the original context. Consider Bhatt’s line, Mujhe ghar jaana hai from Raazi, which turned into a running gag that even her husband Ranbir Kapoor used for laughs. Interestingly, this was a point in the filming process that Meghna Gulzar did not want Mulani to capture. “It was a heavy day for everyone involved, but I cannot tell you how beautiful that moment was. It was not easy for Alia to do the scene, but watching her perform gave us the shivers. I never imagined it would someday become a meme,” Mulani remarks.

It was 22 years ago that Ishika Mohan Motwane first walked onto a set to capture stills for Devdas. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali project, and Veer-Zaara, gave her the opportunity to shoot on film. Mohan Motwane has been able to experiment in her career because she didn’t have to perform the role of photographers before her: of helping with scene continuity. “There weren’t any phones or digital cameras which could be used to document how the set and characters looked. Photographers would have to capture these elements, develop the photos and label them according to their place in the script. They used them as references to recreate scenes,” she explains.

In her last project, the period drama Jubilee, the challenge lay in capturing Bombay in its “talkies” era and bringing this world to the audience. The labour of the still photographer is, after all, the watcher’s first window into a film or series, setting the tone for what comes next: teasers, trailers, looks, and finally, the release. And though she has been treated fairly by production houses and streaming platforms, Mohan Motwane says that those in the profession should be eligible for hikes and respectable remuneration like all of their colleagues and peers on set. “Every department hikes their fees with each project that is in their kitty. Why not the same for photographers?” she asks. 

Mohan Motwane looks forward to new projects with the same vision and drive that she did in her early days—with excitement and a little nervousness. “I do feel the pressure to create a shot that may be picked for a film’s poster. That’s what drives me every day on set. That’s what makes me nervous when I start a project, and what makes me happy at the end of the day—to get that one image that makes the day worthwhile,”she shares.

Some in the film industry fear that the profession is waning, but Mohan Motwane says that there is still much value for the work that still photographers do, especially in the eyes of filmmakers and production houses who acknowledge what they bring to the table. She recalls the unforgettable experience of being asked by Danny Boyle to shoot stills for Slumdog Millionaire. “At the end, he told me that my images helped sell his film. I didn’t understand at the time, but they were looking for buyers after making the film. They’d made a brochure of images from the film and took it to festivals where they met distributors—it was the first look the distributors had of Slumdog Millionaire. That was the first time I realised, maybe the images have a lot more to do than just being on a poster to announce a film’s arrival or release date,” she concludes.

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