Bollywood stars and lensman fraternity mourned Gautam Rajadhyaksha’s death.
Ace photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, 61, who had captured the various moods of some of the most glamourous people in tinsel town, passed away on Tuesday morning following a massive heart attack. His last rites were held at the Chandanwadi crematorium in the evening.
Over the years, the who's who of Bollywood, including singer Lata Mangeshkar and actors Rekha, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Jackie Shroff and Salman Khan, have faced Rajadhyaksha's camera.
“He loved creative art in every form, including singing and writing,” said Mangeshkar.
“I had the opportunity to be photographed by Gautam. And as you can see how he transformed me from nothing to something beautiful,” said actress Hema Malini.
Portfolios and portraits shot by Rajadhyaksha are known to have helped propel the careers of several actors and models, including Tina Munim, Kajol, Abhishek Bachchan and Sheetal Mallar.
"The first time I ever did a professional photo session was with Gautam, who was a pioneer in glamour photography and possibly one of the sweetest and most gentle people you would ever meet,” said Abhishek Bachchan.
Kajol recalled how she had faced Rajadhyaksha's camera as an awkward teenager aspiring to make it big in Bollywood. “Gautam with his unerring eye looked at me, shot me and showed me what I could look like," she said.
Rajadhyaksha started his career with the photo services department of Lintas India and his break in showbiz happened in the early 1980s when he shot portfolio pictures of actress Shabana Azmi, who was his classmate.
Soon, the talented photographer took up commercial photography full-time and joined Celebrity, a magazine run by his cousin - model and writer Shobhaa De nee Rajadhyaksha.
“Gautam’s soft-focus style of photography was unique and his artistic personality was unmatched," said a grief-stricken De, who also considered Rajadhyaksha a close confidant. “It was a privilege for people to get photographed by him.”
In 1997, Rajadhyaksha, who also mentored several budding photographers, had released a coffee table book Faces with portraits of several actresses over the years from Durga Khote to Aishwarya Rai.
Rajadhyaksha had also penned the screenplays for Kajol's debut film Bekhudi and Anjaam starring Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
“Apart from being the best photographer in the industry, Gautam was very fond of Indian classical music and Marathi literature. His death is a huge loss to both the Marathi and Hindi film industries," said actress Sonali Kulkarni, who played the lead role in the Marathi film, Sakhi, which was written by Rajadhyaksha.
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