Shruti Haasan, Ramya Krishnan, Samantha bring life to Raja Ravi Varma's paintings in G Venket Ram's 2020 calendar

Artist G Venket Ram has unveiled his much awaited 2020 calendar, which seems like a nostalgic ode to Raja Ravi Varma, a celebrated artist of the 19th century. The photographer has roped in leading ladies of the South Indian film industry as muses to recreate the iconic paintings of Varma. The calendar is part of Naam Charitable Trust’s fundraiser and the 10th anniversary celebrations. The trust, started by actor and director Suhasini Maniratnam, empowers single women from underserved segments of society. The women featured in the calendar are Khushbu Sundar, Ramya Krishnan, Samantha Akkineni, Lissy Lakshmi, Nadiya Moidu, Lakshmi Manchu, Shruti Haasan, Aishwarya Rajessh, dancers Shobana and Priyadarshini Govind, and Chamundeshwari, one of the beneficiaries of Naam. In an interview to The Hindu, Venket reveals one of the challenges while shooting this project was the lighting. “My inspiration for photography was painting. I used to study them to understand how the artist would analyse light. He is not photographing but he is taking an image in his mind and recreating on canvas. As an artist, he improvises on it, and can mix colours to get a certain shade,” explains Venket. While in one feature, Shruti poses in a light blue sari with the gold-coloured border, emulating the Rani of Kurupam for the portrait, on the other hand, she is Radha soaking in moonlight. Baahubali actress Ramya looks surreal in a traditional kashta sari as Damayanti while she ’listens in rapt attention to the tales of Nala from the swan.’ Samantha, in a coy manner, recreates Raja Ravi’s work, and poses as an “expectant mother holding a fruit, symbolic of a new life”. Check out all the pictures here

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