BENGALURU: Three months ago, blade-runner Shalini Saraswati was getting a photoshoot done. She commented that disabled are usually photographed to inspire pity or sadness, or as heroes. “Why can’t it be a ‘wow’ shot,” said the athlete, meaning a more glamorous or even a sexy image.
Preeti Rai, co-founder of Mission Smile, was present at the shoot. “I had been thinking along the same lines but had been hesitant to approach the amputees with the idea,” she says. She didn’t want them to take offence.
Mission Smile, started in 2014 by Preeti and her friends Sandeep S and Maya DJ, gets people to pledge a talent. Their first was when Sandeep took children from Dharavi to a multiplex. “The kids had a lovely time,” says Preeti, “couldn’t stop grinning.”
After Shalini’s suggestion, Preeti had a chat with advertising photographer Kumaran Ganesan. Kumaran has done the photography for high-end brands such as Royal Challenge, Fast Track and The Brigade Group, and shot celebrities such as Mary Kom, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle. “I told him that I don’t have any money to hire him,” says Preeti, “but he didn’t care... only asked when we can start.”
“I immediately said ‘yes’,” says Kumaran. “I loved the concept.” He, later, met Shalini and that’s when he felt “connected” to the project. “I never saw such vibrance and energy in a person and my studio reverberated with her energy and humour... I couldnt help but hug her every now and then.”
Project Rising Above brings together people from fashion, photography and advertising to bring out a calendar with glamorous shots of amputees. The art director for Kabali, Vinci Raj, is also part of this project.
“We discussed it at length with Shalini,” says Preeti. “She’s a live wire... we contacted other amputees too and got mixed reactions. People were hesitant, nervous but they were all excited to be part of a change, to be seen differently,” says Preeti. She is running a fundraising campaign on Ketto to arrange these photoshoots and depending on the funds, also a coffee-table book.
Shalini, a quadruple amputee, runs marathons using an advanced prothesis. She says she decided to be part of the calendar because nothing like this otherwise exists. “We are either supremely mis-represented or not represented at all,” she says. “For example, how many papers carried pictures of the para Olympic winners on their first page, while PV Sindhu was... We need positive imagery of people with disabilities because that’s the only way to consider us part of the public tapestry and include us as ‘normal’.”
She says she is constantly asked to pose with her blades (prosthesis). “That is power
ful, but I am more than my blades... We’re happy, strong and beautiful people, the disability is just probably a lipstick shade gone wrong!” she says.
Deepak Sharma, an above the knee amputee, says that images are more powerful than words and wants this calendar to carry a message: “Disability has never been a condition, instead it has always been an art… an art of living life where you do things in a more challenging environment and better.” He is surprised by the way amputees are represented across the world, and it extends into the way they are perceived.
“I’m an above knee amputee and my girl friend’s left hand is half born since birth,” he says, “however, we are often viewed in a weird and uncomfortable way... We’ve come across people who think we’re together because we are disabled. It’s absurd.”
26-year-old Vishwas KS, a swimming champ who recently won two silver medals and a bronze at Speedo CAN AM para Swimming Championship, hopes that the calendar will help anyone with goals and dreams. “They are stopped by some barriers... this calendar can allow them to think newly of themselves.” He is patient with people who are jittery around those who are disabled. “They don’t irritate me, they just want me to be taken care of,” he says, hoping that they’ll loosen up and simply ask what they need.
Shalini sounds annoyed with such exagerrated care. “They either treat you like you have the plague or like you are a 3 year old,” she says. “While I understand you want to stare, you might want to be slightly discreet or just smile. Well I get you haven’t seen someone like me, avoid the “tsk tsk” or the “oh my god poor her” looks. I want you to know that my disability is part of who I am and I have made peace with it. I’m in a great place in my life and yes I do laugh, smile, like to go for movies, dance like a maniac and do a hundred things that you do... having or not having my limbs is irrelevant.”
If you want to contribute towards the making of this calendar, log on to Ketto and go to their Rising Above campaign.