Mumbai: As the New Year ushers in, besides the very famous Kingfisher’s swimsuit calendar, the only other calendar that people really look forward to is the star studded one by ace Bollywood photographer Dabboo Ratnani.
Ratnani launched his calendar on 5 January, at Olive, Bandra. Known for coming up with innovative ideas every year, he wanted to do something totally different this year since it’s the 10th Anniversary calendar. Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Ratnani says, "This is my 10th Anniversary calendar so I wanted to do something completely different. For the first time I got 48 actors to feature in it and even though it did take a lot of effort in getting everyone’s dates, it was not very difficult since I started to work on it as early as August and planned my concept well in advance."
Unlike every year he did not have a particular theme for this year’s calendar. He says "This year I thought of having different images instead of a particular theme, I did not want to bind myself to a theme, I just let myself loose. I wanted no restrictions and with a theme you get restricted. I have used a lot of variations and lots of funky props like fast cars, trucks, bikes or a piano. I’ve tried to make every shot different. In one of the shots I’ve even used the Indian army outfit, in other words I’ve completely tried to push myself to make this a landmark calendar."
The calendar this year is a lot larger; it’s a bigger desk calendar mainly to accommodate all the 48 stars. The stars featured in the calendar are: Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Rani Mukherji, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Priety Zinta, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shahid Kapur, Sushmita Sen, Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone Vivek Oberoi, Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, Dino Morea, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Amrita Rao, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Esha Deol, Vidya Balan, Harman Baweja, Fardeen Khan, Imran Hashmi, Mallika Sherawat, Urmila Matondkar, Lara Dutta, Ameesha Patel, Kunal Kapoor, Malaika Arora Khan, Ayesha Takia, Amrita Arora, Kangana, Ranaut Abhay Deol, Konkana Sen Sharma and Riya Sen.
Ratnani adds, "Since most of them were traveling for shoots they could not make it for the launch though they all called to congratulate me. But am glad a few of them were able to attend the launch."
