Mumbai Police Awareness Campaign 2026 | Photographed by Rupali Talan

Mumbai Police Awareness Campaign 2026. Photography: Rupali Talan.

The new Mumbai Police awareness campaign is now live across Mumbai — appearing on large billboards, LED screens, bus shelters and road dividers across the city.

This year's campaign was again photographed by Rupali Talan, continuing our association with Mumbai Police that goes back several years.

A fresh public awareness campaign is usually released around Ganpati Mahotsav, when Mumbai witnesses some of its heaviest movement of people and one of its busiest periods of public policing.. This year's campaign carries the familiar Mumbai Police message:

“सदैव तत्पर. सदैव मदतीस.”
“Prompt. Helpful. Always.”

The photograph brings together Mumbai Police personnel from different ranks and roles in a simple group portrait — representing the force as a whole rather than any one individual or specialised unit.

There is something quite different about seeing a photograph leave the studio and become part of a city.

Mumbai Police Awareness Campaign 2026, photographed by Rupali Talan, displayed across outdoor media in Mumbai.

People encounter it while driving to work, waiting for a bus or moving through Mumbai's traffic. It appears above highways, at junctions and along neighbourhood streets. During the monsoon and Ganpati season, these photographs become part of the visual landscape through which millions of people experience Mumbai.

An association with Mumbai Police since 2016

The relationship goes much further than a single campaign.

Since 2016, The Art of Visuals has created the Mumbai Police calendars, building over the years a substantial visual record of the force, its personnel, specialised units and its relationship with the city it serves.

The Mumbai Police calendars have helped set a benchmark for police photography in India and have become a reference and inspiration for similar visual initiatives by police forces across the country.

The association also goes back to the beginnings of the Mumbai Police calendar initiative in 2016, initiated by Shri Deven Bharti, IPS, then Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), Mumbai. A few years later, the annual public awareness campaign around Ganpati Mahotsav also began during his tenure.

Over the years, Rupali Talan and I have photographed Mumbai Police across numerous assignments — from annual calendars and public campaigns to specialised units, officers at work and some of Mumbai's most recognisable locations.

Each year's calendar or campaign therefore becomes another chapter in a much longer visual record.

The 2026 Mumbai Police awareness campaign, photographed by Rupali Talan, takes that association back onto the streets of Mumbai.

And perhaps that remains one of the most satisfying things about public photography: watching a photograph created during a shoot eventually serve a much larger purpose..

For a while, it simply belongs to the city.

Photography: Rupali Talan
The Art of Visuals