Filmmakers Vikramaditya Motwane and Sooni Taraporevala recently spent their Friday evening encouraging a future generation of photographers and visual artists take their first steps into the real world.

Sooni Taraporevala at the photo exhibition.

Sooni Taraporevala at the photo exhibition.

Chief guests at Khachaak, a photography exhibition organized by the Second-year Mass Media students of KC, HR and St. Xaviers College, Mumbai, the filmmakers interacted with the student photographers during the opening night of the 3-day exhibition. The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement, as the students huddled around to listen to what the guests had to say about their work. While Taraporevala, an established photographer herself, was impressed with the work on display, the real compliment was in the form of her buying a picture shot by Cleon D’souza, straight off the wall. The 19-year old student looked stunned as she instantly handed him the money for the picture. When he recovered he asked Sooni, “Can I have a picture with you?” The smile lasted on his face throughout the evening.

Motwane had some useful advice to offer to the students. “I see a lot of people shoot with teles,” said Motwane. “Everything looks good when shot on those. You should start shooting more with primes like the 35mm or the 50mm if you want to learn photography,” he said.

Vikramaditya and Ishika Motwane look at the photos on display at the exhibition.

Vikramaditya and Ishika Motwane look at the photos on display at the exhibition.

To give the students an idea of what it takes to be a photographer, various workshops were organized of which Ishika Mohan Motwane (still photographer on films such as Udaan, Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Lootera) conducted one on shooting behind-the-scenes. Needless to say she was inundated with various questions starting from how does one behave on set to how it is to shoot with the stars. “You have to be careful not to get into the way,” she said. “There are times when you have to keep ducking behind the camera so that the actors don’t stop you and get distracted. On the whole you need to be as shameless as you can to get the shot,” said Motwane, much to the students’ amusement.