"Priyanka Chopra plays the Lava Girl" - Subi Samuel
He is a hotshot photographer, a film producer and a widely respected name in the film industry. He is Subi Samuel. A name associated with glitz, style and glamour. Subi along with Joy Ghoshal and Rajeev Chudasama of Marching Ants has conceptualized 'Alchemy Calendar 2008' where 24 of the top Bollywood bigwigs like Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta have been presented in comic book strips. In an exclusive interview , Subi explains the reasons for such an unconventional calendar as this, why he likes shooting stars on harnesses and what his future production plans are.
What's so unique about your calendar?
What we have done with this calendar is that we shot with 24 of the biggest names in the film industry and we have transported their image into what would be like a comic book page and each picture in that sense narrates to you. So, you have a picture with Lara Dutta flying in mid air and she posses like she is the sexiest under cover agent alive. You have another picture where there is Dia Mirza who has been blessed with eternal youth but at the same time she can never interact with mankind. So you want to know whether it's a blessing or a curse.
How much time did it take for conceptualizing this calendar?
In terms of time, we decided to start working on this calendar around two months ago. The reason why I chose this concept was since everybody say that their calendars are different. But as a photographer or as a design house, you needed to experiment and go beyond the norms of photography.
Apparently Preity Zinta's character is shown to be 'Miss Congeniality' who takes revenge on a married man with whom she had an affair with…Would you like to elaborate upon the idea behind the concept?
Again, it's just another character that she is playing. Each one of these people is playing a character. So, it's not the actors that you are seeing out there but their characters. However, they are all enacting a role for the first time for a photograph. We shoot a picture and then transport it into a level where you know there is a back story and then when you see the picture, and you read the story, you wonder what is going to happen next. With Preity, she is in love with a guy who is a married man and she doesn't mind the fact that he is married, but eventually she goes to his house one day and realizes that he is cheating on her. That's when she trashes him out and bashes him out. There is so much happening. So there is lots of drama.
So many calendars are coming out as it's the end of the year but mostly one associates women in swimsuits or bikini catching the attention, while yours is a different concept. Do you think that lack of skin show may lead to a lack of interest?
With due respect to everybody who shoots bikini, what I have personally tried to do is to see that these are pictures which are not really going into the norm of bikini or swimsuit or any of that because these are celebrities. I don't think I want to push them into a level where they are all dressed in swim suits. So it's a different concept, it's a different style. I don't think that just because there is no swimsuit and there is no skin-show, it's going to have a diminished appeal. There is a market for swimsuit, there is a market for celebrity and there is a market for all kind of work. If I shoot wild life tomorrow, it doesn't mean that my market is diminished. It just means that I appeal to a different segment of the market.
Alright, could you tell us something about the images of Dhoom star Hrithik Roshan?
We have shot a picture of Hrithik arm wrestling with another guy and for a change, this guy has biceps bigger than Hrithik's and they are in a prison. They have to fight, they have to win, the guy who wins gets his meal and the guy who loses doesn't. That's the background story of the whole picture. You would imagine Hrithik to say something to tick this guy off. He says you know with the kind of bad breath you have you can win any arm wrestling contest. So, there is humor and there is whole drama that's going on.
And what about Ritesh Deshmukh, who seems to have taken his Casanova image seriously?
Ritesh is playing a burglar who has broken into the house, not for the money but because he saw a pair of legs in the house which looked very attractive to him.
What was the role played by Joy Ghoshal and Rajeev Chudasama from Marching Ants in the entire conceptualization and execution stages?
I think Joy and Rajeev are the best guys to work with. There is whole balance between the two of them. There is Joy who is sanity and there is Rajeev who is creativity. So, between the two of them, Marching Ants has struck a brilliant balance, with extremely talented people, and with whom you enjoy working with.
Since you've tried creating stories revolving around each character, there must be lots of storyboarding involved in it…
There is lots of storyboarding involved in this. Lots of brainstorming was done as to how we create a character, what should be the name of the character. There is somebody called Lava Girl in the calendar and she emits lava from the bottom of her feet. She uses this power to fight her enemy and to fly away from them. So, unless you know what you are doing and unless you have all these thoughts in place, it's very difficult to go ahead and shoot.
What is the market for this calendar that you are aiming for?
I think everybody should have my calendar but unfortunately everybody can't have it. We are targeting predominantly to send this across to people who are our friends and to people who we've been closely associated with and have been working with regularly.
What's your favourite comic book character in the Calendar?
The Lava Girl is definitely one of the favorite which has been played by Priyanka Chopra. There is Lara's picture which is brilliant as much as Dia's. If I start talking on this, then, it will look that I am just trying to soft cushion the whole thing but the fact remains that each picture has taken so much time and so much effort and there has been so much drama in each picture that you cannot discount even a single picture.
Would you like to share some experiences while shooting the pictures with such a wide variety of stars?
There are lots of experiences. We used harnesses for the first time in a photo shoot. For the picture with Kunal Kapoor and the picture with Lara, we used harnesses to do whole visual of flying horizontally in mid air. As a photographer, when you start thinking visuals in a different fashion, you start using these kinds of things in a picture. It was a great experience honestly, a learning experience on how to work around with harnesses and then go about and build a picture around it. In terms of people, I've had brilliant run and really enjoyed the process. Like I always say, they all stood by me for something that I have believed in. I really appreciate that about all these 24 people.
You produced an unconventional film titled Alag. What are your future plans as a producer?
I am currently working on a script and in all possibility; I would want to announce the film by March. I've taken a sabbatical because we've got a baby coming home. My entire focus has shifted to that and I definitely don't think I can balance between a film and a baby. Both are my babies in that sense, so I've kind of given time off to myself. (laughs).
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