Ace photographer Rajadhyaksha dies

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Asha Bhosle arrives at the residence of Gautam Rajadhyaksha in Mumbai on Tuesday. — PTI

Celebrated fashion photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, 60, died early on Tuesday morning at his Hughes Road residence, following a massive heart attack. Gautam, who remained unmarried, was cremated at the Chandanwadi crematorium on Tuesday evening. The veteran photographer is said to have been under stress for the last few months over a new project he had undertaken in Pune.
Popular with the who’s who of Bollywood, Gautam is credited with hoisting the careers of some of the biggest names in the industry including that of Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, Rekha, Madhuri Dixit and Aamir Khan. His portraits of musicians, writers, sports stars and industrialists won him great critical acclaim and made him a legend of sorts in the world of photography.
Said his cousin and noted columnist Shobhaa De, “His death is such a huge loss. We were all planning to celebrate his birthday, but unfortunately that is never going to happen.”
Before becoming a celebrity photographer, Gautam, a BSc Chemistry graduate from St. Xavier’s College, worked in the photo services department of the advertising agency Lintas in 1974. Recalls his former colleague and ad guru Alyque Padamsee, “I was the one who got him into Lintas. I offered him the job there. We got him a camera and took him as an in-house photographer. His first ad shoot was for Liril, when he shot Karen Lunell. The print ads were an instant hit.” Gautam was later invited to work for a glamour magazine by De, and since then there’s been no looking back.
In 1997, he released a coffee table book, Faces, containing photographs of 45 film personalities. Soon after Gautam’s demise, the publishers of the book announced that a public edition of the book would be released as a tribute to the maestro. Gautam also dabbled in Bollywood; he wrote screenplays for Bekhudi and Anjaam.
After the news of his death, a steady stream of celebrities made their way to his residence on Tuesday. Among them were Kajol, Tanuja, Asha Bhosle, Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Tabu, Rani Mukherji, Karan Johar, Prateik Babbar, Mumbai mayor Shraddha Jadhav, photographers Avinash Gowariker, Atul Kasbekar and Daboo Ratnani, Javed Akhtar, Raj Thackeray and Mickey Contractor.
Uddhav Thackeray, who came in with wife Rashmi and son Aditya, said, “Gautam was not only a great photographer, but also a kind person. He always had a very personal relationship with his subjects.” Javed Akhtar, who knew him for over 35 years said, “My children grew up around him, and in fact, he was the one who took pictures of them growing. Actually, my son Farhan got his break through Gautam. He used him as a model for one of his shoots when Farhan was just four. He was a creative genius.” Tina Ambani, who couldn’t make it to Gautam’s residence, went straight to the crematorium.