A slice of Bombay

A suited-booted Rahul Bose gets his ear cleaned at Horniman Circle, musician Uday Benegal poses with a guitar in front of Rhythm House at Kala Ghoda, Freddy Daruwala sips chai from a plate at an Irani cafe while model Diandra Soares sits atop a kaali peeli Premier Padmini taxi in a white wedding gown in front of Mount Mary Church in Bandra. These images are certain to make you nostalgic about the metropolis that’s fast fading from the memories of people. The photographs are a part of the first edition of Bombay Old Fashioned, a series of events curated by SodaBottleOpenerWala to bring out the different charms of ‘Bombay’. Fashion photographer Palash Bose is the man behind the camera and the exhibition is on at the Atrium of Palladium Mall. The entire proceeds from this auction will be donated to the kids of Light of Life Foundation. Palash, a Bandra boy himself, takes us through his experience of capturing the celebs in the city he loves...

How did this opportunity come about? 

SodaBottleOpenerWala wanted to preserve the fading images of Bombay.  I’m a storyteller and I like to tell a story through my images. So, I thought there was no better way of doing that! We started bouncing ideas off each other and this is what we came up with.

Tell us a bit about the images. How was the experience of shooting them? 

Rahul Bose’s picture with the ear cleaner was what struck me immediately! I had the image clear in my head. He’s got a stern, straight, poker-faced attitude and I thought that would go perfectly with a guy cleaning his ears. We weren’t sure if the ear-cleaning guy would show up at seven in the morning, so we sent a person from production to pick him up. Another thought I had was of Aalim Hakim in the barber’s chair. He was really sporting about it and went all out by actually getting a shave from this barber! As Diandra is a Bandra girl, I wanted to place her in front of Mount Mary Church that has an old-world feel. There are about eight images at the exhibition. 

What’s the idea behind these images? 

What we want to highlight is the fact that these things are fading away and the new generation has no clue about them. In a way, it’s also educational for the newer lot.