CHENNAI: Wearing a beautiful maroon sari and jewellery, goddess Lakshmi has never looked this beautiful! But what strikes us first about the photo is the colours that the photographer has played with. It’s not just the light and setting but the skin tone of the model. Yes, she has dark skin. In their new concept photoshoot Dark is Divine, photographer Naresh Nil and creative director Bharadwaj Sundar present Indian gods and goddesses in a never-seen-before avatar — as dark-skinned.
“Let me say upfront that we are not atheists or want to make fun of our gods in anyway. This is just an attempt to show that even dark is beautiful and there’s nothing to be ashamed of being dark skinned,” declares Bharadwaj as we start the conversation.The duo, who are Viscom graduates from Aloha Arts and Science College, and run Slingshot Creations, love to do social issues-based concepts whenever possible. “We are into advertising and often do product shoots. But working on such concepts satisfies our creative juice...plus, it’s also relaxing!” he adds.
Bharadwaj came up with this idea three-four months ago but work began in the last week of November. “It was just a sudden thought — Why in all portraits gods are shown as having white skin? There was no such research involved, as in I didn’t have top read scriptures or vedas. But we are so tuned in our minds that when we think of any god, we think of them as fair-skinned,” he points out adding that all they wanted to do was look at the same gods differently.
The seven photos — Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Durga, Shiva, Murugan (Aandiappan), Krishna and Sita with Luva-Kusha -—that were posted on December 29, became a hit in a matter of hours. There were thousands of shares and likes on Facebook, along with many comments. “We did several test shoots with the models, and it helped us...in the sense that each deity has his/her own attitude and we had to match that with the model,” adds Bharadwaj.
Concurs Naresh, who points out, “The most difficult one was to find a model for Shiva. When we were finally shooting Shiva’s photo, we had used smoke. And when it cleared and he emerged out of it, it was so divine,” laughs Bharadwaj. “To keep the studio alive we played devotional songs,” smiles Naresh.
The models were given costumes that were similar in any other portrait. “We didn’t want to do something drastic. The concept was only on skin tone and not attire. So we kept it simple. Only for Murugan, whom we represented as Aandiappan (the one who is naked), we brought in a change. As per legends, he went to the hills after donating everything that he had. We have so far portrayed him with all the decorations and stuff. In this shoot, he just wears a rudraksh and komanam,” explains Bharadwaj.
Naresh’s relative, a 13-year-old boy agreed to do the shoot. “He was dedicated to the project, so much so that he shaved his head. He had no qualms wearing just a komanam and was happily roaming around the sets,” he smiles.The initial idea was to shoot 12 gods and goddesses including Jesus, but time constraint made them reduce to just six. “Sita was not part of that list. Our make-up artiste, Sridevi Ramesh, was so moved by the project that she came up with the idea of Sita and portrayed her,” adds Bharadwaj. “Whomever we met with wanted to be a part of this project from the beginning itself.”
Naresh adds, “We had a blast shooting with Krishna. We wanted a much younger boy to portray Krishna but the model we got was just ‘perfect’. That was the shortest shoot. We finished within 30 minute. He came, he saw and he gave us the best pose.”
So far, this concept has received more of positive reviews than negatives. But weren’t they afraid of trolls and criticism? “We just scroll down. The idea is to spread a positive message. It is to show that all skin colours are equal. In no way are we promoting that gods are dark skinned, or are we putting down fair skinned people. There’s nothing here to take offence,” avers Bharadwaj.