Lensman Atul Kasbekar weighs in as curtain falls on Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar

After a long stint of 19 years the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar comes to an end The calendar published annually by the United Breweries Group of India published the last edition in 2021Since 2003 it was one of the most prestigious calendars to be released from India and can be credited as being a launch pad for leading models and actresses Katrina Kaif Deepika Padukone Yana Gupta Sonali Raut Ujjwala Raut Nargis Fakhri Bruna Abdullah Deepti Gujral Lisa Haydon and Angela Jonsson have all been featured on its pagesThe calendar has been shot in exotic destinations around the globe The Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar 2021 was brought back to the home base and was shot during the pandemic in KeralaAce photographer Atul Kasbekar has been the man behind the lens since its inception He is the only celebrity photographer in Asia who has associated with a calendar and the brand for so long As the curtains come down on the calendar IANSlife caught up with Kasbekar to look back at the making of the annual Calendar and an era of fashion and beautyRead ExcerptsThe Kingfisher calendar was the first luxury corporate calendar out of India comparable to international calendars what was the vision you started out withKasbekar I believe what happened with the calendar was that it began to act as a platform to showcase talent we discovered that many people from the calendar rose to stardom and if you were chosen for it it almost put you in another orbit The spotlight was on the talent that featured in it and it things to a higher levelOf course whether it was Katrina Kaif who was in the first edition Deepika Padukone Yana Gupta Nargis Fakhri Saibi Kher and all the others rose a few notches it aided their careers greatly in a manner of speaking we had a very high ratio of talent spottingWhat was the idea behind the calendarKasbekar Two decades ago to understand the context in which the Kingfisher calendar started for me as a photographer it was an opportunity to do something that involved me reporting to the client directly which was a great relief given that otherwise you have to go through the agency route and a lot of layers in any kind of approval on real creativitySo I had this idea for doing something which is a cross between Pirelli and Sports Illustrated The Pirelli calendar photographs models with different photographers over the years and women are the theme Its really the photographers interpretation and you can only get the Pirelli calendar from the chairmans desk you cant buy one Sports Illustrated has always been a swimsuit calendar shot on exotic beaches around the world but you can easily get it from a book storeWe did a swimsuit calendar because its Kingfisher beer and a cold beer on a warm beach is a fantastic drink and it just seemed ideal The perfect brand fit the marriage of the two lay in the context of that you couldnt get it at a book store it was sent to you if your name was on a listTo be a Kingfisher calendar girl meant you had arrived in the modelling world who were the most memorable models youve shot withKasbekar The really famous models are already known they went on to become movie stars but there have been some stunning models over the years that we have shot like Angela Jonsson Kanishtha Dhankar Lisa Haydon Kate Mara and Priya Emmanuel so there have been a bunch of people who were really amazing and a joy to shoot with and it has honestly been a privilegeYou shot the calendar yearonyear without falling into the trope of casting celebrities e who can we credit for thisKasbekar The calendar started making a name for itself for making people famous and giving them a platform and so we saw no reason at any point in time to use the crutch of using someone famous To say that the idea was not thought about more than once and due credit goes to the people who believed in the power of their own property ie the calendar and decided not to go down the routeWill you miss shooting a calendar and do you believe theres a corporate who would like to release one What will it take to get you to shoot for itKasbekar I think I always saw the calendar work as a form of calendar art in a very commercial sense but it was still in the zone of commercial art at least in my head and I would love to do a project like this There are two things to bear in mind one is that I think visual communication really needs to focus more on photography as an art form and a form of expression and for me to shoot one will be an exciting prospectThe very thought of a calendar per se the last two decades has diminished Nobody really puts up a calendar anymore So only if you do something like this if it transcends into an art form and if someone goes into that space it would be an absolute joy to collaborate as an artistYour most memorable year and whyKasbekar It would be cliche to say that every year is special but I will say that it has always been fantastic to shoot in South Africa because there is so much it offers In fact we have shot there three times and each time was different demonstrating the sheer range of photography and backgrounds available in that beautiful country The other place that I would love to return to for a shoot or otherwise is Mykonos in GreeceBeauty and fashion reality shows didnt quite take of in India as they did in the West despite lockdown and the number of OTT platforms WhyKasbekar To be honest I never watched too many of these beauty and fashion reality shows The Kingfisher calendar had a hunt for the Kingfisher calendar girls which I think ran with reasonable success for 45 years and discovered some interesting new faces I was part of that as a part of my commitments to UB group and the project I am the wrong person to ask about the reality shows success in India Having said that I have to confess that I have friends who watch Bigg Boss with incredible regularity and when that conversation starts I have literally nothing to contributeWhats next on the charts Kasbekar We are in talks with the UB Group to see if we can transcend going above and beyond the calendar project Per se we are hoping to come up with something thats more with the times I am very keen that it goes into some kind of digital art kind of space Thats what I am hoping to do Separately we have been producing movies Loop Lapeta which is our homage to Rum Roller Run the Greman classic is going to be out on Netflix in early February Then there are 34 other films that we look forward to this year We have kept ourselves quite busy in the pandemic working on material and are putting it together now