Titled Oddity: Don’t Bend, Don’t Blend, a calendar featuring six people with disabilities was launched recently to spread awareness about disability and raise funds for organisations working for the betterment of people with disabilities.
Conceived by photographer Rishab Dahiya and his friend Purva Mittal, who has a neuromuscular genetic disorder known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy, characterised by weakness and wasting (atrophy) in muscles used for movement (skeletal muscles), the calendar features the latter, among five other Delhi-based people.
Dahiya, who did the shoot, says, “I had been thinking of doing a calendar for long but I wanted it to be different and meaningful because launching a calendar holds a very important position in a photographer’s life.”
The calendar also features dentist Anubha Mahajan, who has an invisible disability called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome; Faisal Ashraf Nomani, who has a locomotor disability in his lower limbs and uses a wheelchair; Soniya Malik, a double amputee, uses prosthetic legs for her mobility; India’s first model with autism, Pranav Bakshi, and burn survivor Manisha Prajapati, who was engulfed by flames at an the age of four years.
About choosing this theme, Dahiya says, “Purva and I had planned a lot of things but nothing happened. But gradually we zeroed in on the theme of disability and started contacting people. We had to do everything in haste because the idea came just two weeks before the shoot.
And we wanted to launch it on December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.” Dahiya shuttles between Delhi and Mumbai because his parents live in Delhi. The shoot for the calendar was also done in Delhi because all the people were from Delhi.
“Purva connected me to Faisal Ashraf Nomani, who further connected me to more people, and so on,” adds the 32-year-old, who has shot with various celebrities like Sonam Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Richa Chaddha, Raima Sen, and others. Not all people agreed to be a part of the calendar, “And I totally respect that,” asserts Dahiya.
Selecting a place was another challenge. Dahiya says, “We wanted a studio that was accessible for people with disabilities. But during the search, I realised that studios did not have friendly structures. Finally, we shot at my friend’s studio in Shahpur Jat. It had an elevator but we had to lift Faisal’s wheelchair on four stairs to reach the lift.” As for the future, Dahiya will be leaving for Dubai to shoot a Mixed Martial Arts event organised by Krishna Shroff. “After celebrating Christmas, and new year, I will start working on my short film,” he concludes.