Being Artistic...

I loved a successful photographer's status message on a famous social networking site. He said he wanted to come up with something that would outlive him and in the process discovered photography. A cool comment for sure.

Art has always inspired me.

And yes, if one is artistic and one wants to get rich as well as famous and glamorous , one needs to choose a career in an artistic field.

Modelling, popular music, movies, TV are the most popular fields chosen by people in order to become, rich, famous and glamorous . The ones who like to strike a chord with a vast section of the audience and also earn a lot of money, opt for pop music, commercial movies, TV etc.

In the western world, the classier and sophisticated crowd like to choose opera, ballet, sculpturing, chic fashion et al.

Struggle to survive, to shine and the cut throat competition is a sure part of every field and these fields are no different. Hollywood movies such as 'The Devil wears Prada', the recent well made movie, 'Black Swan', and Indian films such as 'Page 3' and 'Fashion' have realistically chronicled the struggle and the hard road to success in artistic and glamorous careers.

If one has the wish for fame, I think the person should try to become famous by getting good, constructive kind of work in their kitty. Rather than opting to become infamous...

I have seen many rich folks from non glamorous professions craving for fame and glamor. Even the ones who aren't all that rich and might be doing some common job somewhere, want fame & glamor and observe people from glamorous professions most of the time.

I've seen that it's difficult for some to accept the fact that they didn't have the background, support, will or sense of discipline to get it. Perhaps they were not born in the right place or the right family. Or maybe they didn't do what they wanted when they were younger, when the time was right to try out a profession like that. Or maybe they don't look enough for a glamorous career.

After that they spend the rest of their lives comparing themselves to people who have the fame- movie stars, musicians. models et al or appeasing themselves by saying that they are better than them. Or comparing people of their kind with the big names.

I have heard some say, "I am better than this particular movie star, I should be right up there", "My girl is hundred times hotter than this pop star". Gosh. Too much comparison more so with the people not within one's reach can only increase misery.

My next question directed to such a person would be- 'So you/ she/ he should have been up there, right and not down here? Or is it because you/ she/ he had zero talent? After all it's the complete package- beauty, brains, sex appeal, sweetness, innocence, attitude, hard work- depending on what the audience want to see. There's always a story behind the birth of a star.

Guys, go get a life...

Well, I'm not the mean/ cruel type like many others and wouldn't want anyone to sulk or cry after a reality check. So I prefer to be quiet at times. But sadly many don't get the hint.

But honestly it's such a futile exercise. Either you are a star or you didn't make it.

Hidden beauty, hotness, talent or anything else has no value. It's a sad truth of this world.I've said in my posts(almost apologetically) how I can't talk about who aren't famous or who don't have a name.

It's true that as journos we aren't allowed to talk about people who are not known or are not relevant to our stories. And it's not just true for glamorous professions.The journalists who cover other beats, have to talk about the Bill Gates, the Google founders, the face book founders, award winning writers, Presidents, Prime ministers and other big names from all over the globe.That's their job. When I was working for TV shows, websites,a news agency that's what I ended up doing. Talk about the people who have it all, over and over again. It didn't matter whether I liked it or not.

Sometimes some real people, some commoners get some coverage but it's kind of 15 minutes of fame( as coined by the futuristic thinker Andy Warhol in the 60s) for them.

Not everyone can have fame. The sooner one accepts the facts the better it is.

The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall...- the famous song by Abba can explain that quite well too. Why the reality is so, is another great mystery which remains to be deciphered. Different people have had different opinions about the same.

And even though a certain celeb might not be good enough for you, the person is still in the limelight and has made it somehow. By doing all that it takes. Sometimes even by getting undue privileges.

One also needs to understand the fact that to each his own, choices are different for everyone. What might be beautiful, hot and pretty for some mightn't be the same for the other.

Wise men like Shakespeare too had defined it all well by saying-"Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder."

But comparison should happen between equals. Period.

It can happen between people from similar fields of work, similar social strata. Some people just do it all the time with anybody to make themselves feel better, to appease themselves. I think it's totally unhealthy.

Moreover handling fame, riches, glamor isn't all that easy. It's not everyone's cup of tea.

It's not as rosy as it looks. Except perhaps a lucky few who have mastered the art.

Facing the camera without any inhibitions is tough. Many actors even after acting for many years still look artificial or uncomfortable in front of the camera. Running around trees in Indian might be easier but there are a lot of sacrifices involved.

Sometimes the screen adds age and make people look a few pounds heavier than they actually are. The big screen is a really something else. A director I was assisting for a little while had told me how nothing can be hidden on the big screen. Sometimes cakes of makeup save a bit but when one is doing realistic cinema, the actor is supposed to wear less makeup. In short it's a lot of pressure.

Some big names have badly failed at handling fame. Hollywood has had many examples of people, big stars being actually lonely at home in their twilight years and have chronicled the same in movies such as ' Sunset Boulevard', "Whatever happened to Baby Jane?' and 'Norma Jeane & Marilyn'.

Fame like other things isn't everlasting( more so for people from showbiz) and it's difficult for the stars to accept the fact that when they are old, the adulation fades and there is not much demand. They hate the competition from the younger lot.

In the Indian movie industry an actress's ( women have to face the age bias much more)career ends fast. They have a very short shelf life. Now it has increased but many 30 plus actresses have faced a lot of criticism even in the 21st century. A very beautiful one like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan hasn't been spared from terrible age related criticism mainly from narrow minded audiences and the majority are like that.

In Hollywood some have looked very good till their forties. Monica Belluci, Salma Hayek, Halle Berry,Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and so on still rock. Some I mentioned here are Oscar winners( Halle, Nicole, Sandra are winners and Salma is a nominee) and they look really stunning even now(It's a treat to watch such women as there aren't many around). They don't seem to care about the competition from the younger lot either. They are happy in their own space and maintain everything well.

But it wouldn't have been so if they were in India. The criticism for older actresses( surprisingly not so for the actors) is way too much. The Indian fans get almost abusive. Some of the comments they make about celebs and especially the older ones are plain horrendous and offensive. The criticize the rest too if they don't find them beautiful or appealing enough. Guess living life in the public eye comes with a price.

In Hollywood after 50 many leading actresses have complained about the drying up of substantial roles ( when compared to the leading men).

One famous dialogue from the classic 'Sunset Boulevard' which tells the story of a 50 something retired silent movie actress who simply can' accept the realities of life( made way back in 1950) goes like this-"You were big". "I'm big, the pictures got small."

Leading life in the limelight is about facing lots of pressures from the paparazzi, press, audiences, critics and so on.

Some have just let it all go to their heads( it's an art to handle fame, money and success with grace) and have fallen terribly.

I have done a lot of research and reading and have seen that some others haven't been able to handle it all well because of various mental and behavioral issues too. It's a sad side of the glamor world.

Winona Ryder is a good actress, she had the best of roles in the 90s and an Oscar nomination too. But everything changed after the shoplifting incident in 2001. This woman really goofed up badly and things rapidly went downhill. She did very few decent movies thereafter and now is trying to make a worthwhile comeback with a small but effective part in the much talked about 'Black Swan.'

The wiser ones do so better with their knowledge, experience, help from family etc.

A sane mind, wise, constructive thinking & work and a good family are such wonderful blessings of life. Whatever career one chooses, that's a blessing.Period.

If one is not running after fame , know what one wants in life and is of the spiritual type, acceptance becomes easy. Goals become clearer. One is focused and knows what to achieve in life.

One can also start believing in sayings like, 'Beauty without virtue is like rose without scent. One can become happier in his/ her own skin.

Then one can understand a quote like this better as well- If they call you hot ,they are talking about your body, if they call you pretty, they are talking about your face and if they call you beautiful, they are actually talking about your inner purity". Food for thought...

Thank you dear God for making me understand these important things better in life and for being able to propagate a bit of the same...

The magic of the movies have always enthralled me. But I wan never fame hungry and always preferred a quiet, peaceful life.

I was into more into writing, reading et al and hence never thought about taking up acting, direction, editing or camera etc. I wanted to spread messages and be kind of an activist, stand up for just causes through my writing. Thankfully it's happening by and by.

And yes, thanks to all the research and the fruitful discussions, from my early days I could differentiate between good cinema and the terrible stuff that people make in the country of my birth, India and even some other film industries and try to pass off as art. I did some movie reviews apart from interviewing, writing features, news stories, TV scripts, etc. The work kind of increased my experience and knowledge.

I had stage fright from my school days and couldn't really came over it. And as I said, I never craved for the limelight.

Singing on stage during my school days was easier though. I had played some violin in my childhood. But I was never a trained singer so there was no question about trying out singing professionally. Having a good Indian classical base is quite a challenge.

Well, on and off people did tell me to think about acting. Well, if my circumstances were different and if I was from the western world, I would have preferred Broadway, ballet, western classical music or something in chic and high fashion. But that wasn't the case.

Jokes apart, as far as acting was concerned, I am more of an unconventional looker and knew someone like me is not made for Indian movies. When they compared me to a couple of actresses and that I look better, I would say thanks but would never take that kind of talk seriously.

It meant 'no thanks' because our worlds are different.

A bit of modelling seemed alright for me.

I was not too keen to go deep into that world either because one needs either big contacts through family or do some kind of corruption, groupism etc. Most people from the Indian industry like to deny it, thanks to their hypocritical natures( maybe living in denial makes them feel better) but it's a fact and has been documented in Indian movies, magazines as well and off the record by many industry veterans as well.

Also I couldn't get along with many of them because most of them have very little intelligence and wisdom. There are only a few wise and good ones around but they are hard to find.

So after a few years in Bombay city, I found an acquaintance who decided to do an outdoor shoot with me. We started first thing in the morning, around the time of sun rise, because it's the time one gets the golden light. The makeup woman was able to give a few tips to a newcomer. The evening pictures around sunset( another time to catch the golden light) were decent too.

Later in the coming months, I had indoor shoots for two sets of professional pictures and some garment & magazine editorial shoots.

Well, I never intended to become a big name in modelling but these pictures ended up helping me to do better things with my life. I got spotted through a few pictures online( I kinda surprised myself with that one:) and increased my work and travelling options. I got to meet a few good people who have become like family to me now. In short they did help to better my life. Thank God again for that.

I always thought I could carry make up well and the pics kind of proved it. Getting myself photographed was a good decision indeed.

Most pictures from all the photo shoots had come out good if not all. Well, my opinions are different from the rest and hence sometimes others have liked what I haven't liked.

Most importantly these experiences also taught me a few basic things about photography and makeup- two very beautiful art forms.

Now I can even think of pursuing photography professionally sometime. That's so cool.

Over the years, I also found out what base( foundation) and what kind of colors would look good on me. I like to have heavy eye color but prefer lighter to medium shade of lip color. And yes, if I have some kind of heavy makeup on, I need to use colored lenses- gray, dark brown, and honey colored to look my best and also to bring variety. I can't carry the blue and violet colored lenses though. They don't suit me at all.

Heavy makeup without lenses makes me look too oriental. I have some oriental blood in me from North east India. Some people from my state were descendants of the Mongols, the Siamese and some other tribes. There were a few Aryans there too. Though I can't exactly tell my bloodline, I say that the same makes people think that I have a mixed look.

I said in one of last posts how people in New Jersey, London and Trinidad thought I am either half Asian, Mexican( a Mexican himself thought so), Venezuelan, Brazilian, even Polynesian and Egyptian. The word chameleon which someone special came up with defines it pretty well.

I really look different in every picture. Many unanimously agree on that. I see that myself as well.

Thank God, I know myself and understand what they are taking about well. As a whole it's a blessing to know oneself.

My natural eyes are brown in color too but they look better with the no make up look. Just a little kohl and light lip color. I could make that out from my normal home snaps. One needs to understand a face well before applying makeup. I understand my face well and can effortlessly put on makeup for normal shoots, special occasions and the few parties I attend.

I am not good at styling my hair on my own as they are really unmanageable.

A hairstylist I met in this Caribbean island is quite good at his job. He and I discussed a bridal look I had seen in a fashion show. He gave my hair an auburn/brownish kind of shade, put hair extensions and did a curled hair look for me with some packing in between( so that it look slightly high to put on the veil).

I handled the makeup with the experience I had. The results were fantastic.

Lightening in a photograph is the most basic thing. In one of my meetings, a photographer told me that and I realized it while clicking home pictures too.

People who paint and sketch and have an artistic side about them tend to make better photographers. A fashion photographer who was quite a artist gave me some really good pictures around two years ago. He wasn't a very good human being and maybe that's why he hasn't gone on to do very well either. He's still a struggler. His work was good and perhaps with the right moral values he would have shone better.

I love black and white photography. Perhaps because I've been a huge classic movie fan.

A little more than two years ago,in Mumbai I tried to do a classic kind of shoot imitating the looks of the great actresses-Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Kim Novak.

But unfortunately the make up person and the photographer were very amateur and not artistic enough. The photographer had an eyesight problem and every time he needed to peep into the camera, he needed his glasses.

He didn't even know what kind of model would look good on camera, what kind of lighting and makeup he needed to use for her.His choices of other models from his other shoots were pretty bad too. The kind of girls I felt he likes to shoot could make it no where. Some looked okay in real life but were not made for the modelling world. Others were too common, plain looking, skanky and not knowledgeable enough to shine in that word.

Not surprisingly he gave me disastrous results. He just didn't have it in him and is too narrow minded and close minded or say ignorant about the international fashion world to make it big.

I am still so sorry that I kind of ended up insulting a classic fashionista like Audrey Hepburn, beautiful and graceful Grace Kelly and ladies with ever green oomp factor- Ava Gardner, Kim Novak by making such bad choices- a forever wannabe photographer and amateur make up/ costumes woman from Mumbai. I really regret this one.

It's really sad that this kind of amateur people advertise themselves as professional photographers and lead people astray. I am not a very mean person and though he's on my friends list on a social networking site, I never really told him about it. I did send him some hints but wonder if he ever picked them up.

Sadly for some people ignorance is bliss and they love to live in a fool's paradise.

Hope he realizes soon why he's out of work for most days of the year and has to struggle to support his family, why he has to wait for people to take him or call him home for lunch, dinner et al. Maybe he likes to exploit people a bit for survival( a common human nature) but it's really unjust and unfair for the ones who fall into such traps.

Thankfully I somehow got two good pictures(one of them is my profile pic here) and they looked better because they were converted to black and white. The makeup woman tried a bit and did at least two good hairdos.

I'm in a Caribbean island right now and I would have loved to explore the beauty of the beaches and done some nice beach wear( not bikinis but with sarongs etc) shoots with a good photographer.

But I'm yet to meet the right person. Hope I do that soon, oh Lordy Lord.

I'm still hunting for a good photographer who could at least give me a good celtic look. I love the floral head gear and garland look. But sadly this ain't New York but a small island. I still hope to get lucky being quite the optimist.

When I go to Hawaii someday, I would love to dress up as a Hawaiian girl. Even if it's a simple camera it's fine because the beauty and colors of nature will make the pics lovely.

Now let me talk about what I came to discuss in this post in the first place. I wanted to help a good acquaintance a bit. But gosh, I ended up talking more about other artistic things, some similar stuff.

I met this British gentleman in Mumbai a little more than three years ago. He's been media person and he met me so that I could help him coordinate with some old time actors, current film/ TV people from the industry.

He's a great photographer who got interested in photography a few years back while working as a reporter for the BBC, AP and AFP. His photographs have appeared in many BBC publications and in newspapers and magazines in several countries such as The Guardian, Metro, Men's Journal USA, Cycling Weekly and Salisbury Life.

He has gotten better with time and does lovely wedding pics and portraits. He was very helpful when I visited London last year. Sadly I couldn't stay long and hence couldn't shoot with him.

Here's a link to the wonderful Jonny Donovan's site.

http://www.jonnydonovan.com


After taking a look at the site, I decided he should be the one I should shoot with next. I would love to do a few black and white pics with him either in London or in the Caribbean. It depends on who travels first. I told him if I have a child of my own by the time I travel, I would like him to do a mom- child kind of homely shoot:)

Babetude is looking forward to this constructive & artistic new plan...