Shooting Super Model Lisa Lazarus for Mega Modelz Cover

Who should feature on the cover of Mega Modelz magazine? 

It had to be an EXCLUSIVE !

This kept me and Atul Pandey (Editorial Director, Mega Modelz) thinking for quite some time- till we finally got this one !!!

I wanted to shoot with a girl who was an achiever of sorts n now well on her way to international recognition n yet connected to India. ..Once we agreed on the line of thought, it wasn’t difficult to zero in on Lisa Lazarus- the supermodel from London, current Miss UK –Universe and most importantly making her debut in Bollywood opposite none other than Salman Khan in much hyped up movie Veer !

Lisa n I had been in touch online for a while but working out a proper shoot needs time…! Was she free to shoot immediately? It had been almost a month since we had briefly connected. 

I was determined to put Lisa on the cover n the issue deadline was fast approaching. I guess when you really want something, things fall in place (…and NO! I have not read The Secret- my mother says that to me n it always works!), n we got Lisa to shoot in the next 48 hours. How we managed it, is a trade secret!  

The challenge now was to shoot her differently from whatever she had been shot before. I decided to present her two different sides to the readers of Mega Modelz- the bold n sexy girl you lust for and the cute dreamy girl you want to fall in love with! The hot n sweet! To accentuate the two emotions we worked on two different themes–keeping in mind the backdrops, lighting, makeup n obviously costumes n colors- white to bring out innocence n dark to add sensuality…. then small value adds -elements like roses n iron chains. The choice of outfits was kept as simple white n black, n the stylists Rinki & Neetu Jain did a great job in organizing the right outfit at 4 hours of notice. There was not even enough time to work out proper trials with Lisa as next morning she was to fly out to Dubai.

I usually trust for such shoots- the able hands of Mahendra Gupta for make-up & hair. He understands that I like to keep everything very simple yet beautiful and that my focus is always on the mood/emotion of the picture. Many times I have heard this flattering line from people about my work that my pictures somehow speak- I would very humbly want to put it across, that it’s not in my hands- I just try to make the models as comfortable as possible- n ultimately what speaks in the pic is their expressions n body language only…! The tricky part while shooting a model always is to bring out the right kind of emotions from within them. And for that a dialogue between the two is so very important- to get the right expression n then time your shot well to capture it. 

Lisa is so quite used to shooting mostly glamour & I wanted to shoot her soft, innocent, naughty as well. Ultimately we got some really lovely pics. I realized she is a fabulous model and would surely be one of the finest Bollywood discoveries- (if she could withstand the pressures within the industry).The way she responds to camera n emotions –speaks a lot about her as a mega model n actress…..! It is there for you all to see in her pictures in the current issue of the magazine!

And before I forget to mention - she is an excellent human being- it was her last evening in Mumbai n she had whole lot of prior commitments to fulfill –yet after the shoot she stayed back close to an hour, just to cut my birthday cake. I had not mentioned my b’day( 20th Dec) to anyone, but my close friend Simple Kaul surprised me by dropping in with a cake to the studio- n needless to say-it ended up being a great b’day. 

After all I could not have celebrated it in a better way than to spend the day shooting an exciting cover with a beauty queen n then cutting cake in eve with friends!