| Down
memory lane with Mumbai’s acclaimed Hamilton
Studios
 Mumbai’s
Hamilton Studios, famous for its portraiture, turned
50 last month. Established in 1928 by Englishman
Victor Sassoon, the studio is located in the heart
of Ballard Estate, the city’s heritage district.
Its 82-year-old owner and the only resident photographer
(at one point there were 10) Ranjit Madhavji, a
textile exporter who bought the studio on a whim,
says that nothing much has changed in the last 50
years as far as its appearance is concerned. “I
have not even got the walls repainted as I wanted
to maintain the ambience of an old world studio.
We have shot several celebrities within these walls,”
he says. “From Madhubala to Zeenat Aman and
JRD Tata, to Babasaheb Ambedkar and Wipro chairman
Azim Premji, they have all come to get their portfolios
clicked. I shoot only portfolio pictures and use
at least 10 lights.” There have been times
when he has taken one of his 20 unwieldy old cameras,
which includes a Kodak 1926 Studio, a 1930 Field
Camera, a Speedgraphic, a Graphlex, a Mamiaflex
Professional, a Hilba and a Wilsor out of the studio
to shoot people like the Dalai Lama. DEEPALI NANDWANI
gets him to blow the dust off some of the studio’s
most memorable photographs.
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Vinod
Khanna
1969
Khanna
was about a year old in the Hindi film industry
and wanted his photograph to reflect his then
‘baddie’ image. He was cast in
the villain’s role in Man
Ka Meet, his first movie
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Madhubala
1958
Howrah
Bridge had just released and the
actor was the reigning queen of the Hindi
film industry
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Dalai
Lama
1962
“I
met the Dalai Lama for the first time in Dharamsala.
I was carrying my camera but it wasn’t
loaded,” says Madhavji. “I requested
if I could shoot him and he agreed. But he
was laughing all the time. He knew the camera
had no roll in it and I was pretending. I
wanted to observe him and just hang around”
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Zeenat
Aman 1968
Zeenat
made her modelling debut in a Nirlon India
calendar shot by Hamilton Studios
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Azim
Premji
When
Wipro chairman Azim Premji got this photograph
shot in 1978, he was just beginning his
immensely successful journey. “He
was very quiet throughout the shoot,”
says Madhavji
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Babita
Actor
and model Babita, 1967. “Babita Bhambhani,
who was very confident in front of the camera,
came to us to get a portfolio done, as she
was keen to act in the movies,” says
Madhavji
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JRD
Tata
An
impeccably attired Jehangir Tata got this
portrait done in 1932, two days before he
launched Tata Airlines. It was meant to
be used for publicity purposes
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Deepak
Parekh
Madhavji has photographed HDFC chairman
Deepak Parekh several times. “He is
very shy and gives you very little time,
but I always tell him, ‘give me a
minimum of an hour to do the picture’"
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