A story often told in film circles is that Raj Kapoor had a strict rule for any still photographer on his set — wait till the scene is wrapped up to click photos of the leads. But legend has it that the filmmaker was so impressed by photographer Damodar Kamat’s work in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960) that he hired him for all his forthcoming movies, knowing that he had a knack for discreetly capturing beautiful images while a film shoot was underway. That is how cinephiles came to see rare images from Sangam (1964) and Teesri Kasam (1966), through Kamat’s lens. Enduring Legacies: Edition 1 — Timeless Frames: Photographic Journey Through Indian Cinema, a six-day exhibition in the city, will celebrate the late gifted photographer whose pictures have served as the bridge between Bollywood of the past and today.
The latter’s shot for ‘Guide’
As Hindi cinema’s reigning still photographer from the 1940s to his demise in 1967, Kamat shot production stills of countless big-ticket movies — from Azaad (1955) to Bandini (1963), from Pyaasa (1957) to Guide (1965). He founded Kamat Foto Flash in 1945, which today has built an archive of over 3,00,000 images.
Businessman Shivdutt Das, whose foundation is hosting the exhibition from September 20 to 25 at Piramal Gallery at the NCPA, said, “Today, the archive of over 3,00,000 negatives is stewarded by the third generation, Neha and Abhishek Kamat, who continue to preserve this legacy through digitisation and collaboration with scholars, filmmakers, and researchers through Kamat Foto Flash.”
Mala Sinha and Guru Dutt in ‘Pyaasa’
The inaugural evening will be attended by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, actors Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Ajay Devgn, Kajol, Ranbir Kapoor, and Alia Bhatt. Speaking about curating the exhibition, Parvez Damania shared, “Damodar Kamat’s photographs are living documents that capture the soul of Indian cinema.”
3L
Negatives of images that have been preserved by the Kamat family
Dharmendra and Nutan in ‘Bandini’
Padmini & Raj Kapoor in ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’
Meena Kumari and Dilip Kumar in ‘Azaad’
