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In 1960s Ajmer, photographer Ram Chand’s customers could face the camera without smiling and still play out a vivid Bollywood fantasy. Their portraits used clothes, props, studio settings and painted-on details to let ordinary people try on cinematic roles—not to promote films, but to shape how they wished to be seen.
How Ram Chand’s Ajmer studios turned portraits into performances
Chand opened Navrang in 1959 and Shatranj in 1969, names drawn from films released in those years, according to Scroll.in’s 2018 account. The studios served local customers rather than the film industry. A watchman or milkman might arrive in his best clothes and pose in a jacket, tie and dark glasses; some women wore traditional Kashmiri costumes.
The resulting pictures joined everyday respectability to the glamour of popular cinema. A sitter might request a double-role composition, ask for a famous actor to appear beside him, or pose with a gun. These were not simply records of what customers wore or looked like. They were composed images, built from the sitter’s choices and the studio’s means of staging them.
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Why the unsmiling faces still carried swagger
Chand preferred solemn expressions. He recalled: “These were simple people with simple lifestyles,” adding that “there was no need for smiling teethily like fools.” A straight face and stiff posture did not cancel the fantasy. Formal bearing could make a customer look serious and self-possessed while costume, pose and props supplied the cinematic flourish.
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Clothing and studio objects helped establish the role, but the image could also be altered after the exposure. Painter Rajinder Sharma added details such as moustaches and guns directly onto photographs. Chand said of Sharma, “He could do anything with his paintbrush on a photograph.” Painting was therefore part of making the portrait, not just decoration added after the photographic work was complete.
What customers wanted their portraits to say
The reported anecdotes point to individual purposes, not one motive shared by every sitter. One customer wanted relatives to see his moustache; another wanted a keepsake to show a future fiancée. For them, the portrait could present a chosen version of the self to people who mattered. Its Bollywood cues made that presentation more dramatic, but the personal use remained close to family and relationships.
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Chand’s Ajmer portraits also need to be distinguished from two Bombay practices. Kamat Foto Flash photographed publicity stills and other images for Hindi cinema, as described by the National Centre for the Performing Arts in its account of Celluloid Memories. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art’s archive on India Photo Studio and Jethalal H. Thakker describes a Bombay portrait studio associated with actors and their public images. In those settings, photographs connected to the film industry and star personas; in Ajmer, local customers commissioned portraits for their own purposes.
| Practice | Who was photographed and why | Where the cinematic style entered |
|---|---|---|
| Ram Chand’s Navrang and Shatranj studios, Ajmer | Local customers commissioned portraits for personal purposes, including showing an image to relatives or keeping one for a future fiancée. | Customers requested film-inspired poses and compositions; clothing, props, studio staging and painted details helped create the image. |
| Kamat Foto Flash, Bombay | The NCPA describes it as a studio that photographed publicity stills and other images for Hindi cinema. | Its work served film-industry photography rather than local customer portrait commissions. |
| India Photo Studio / Jethalal H. Thakker, Bombay | The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art connects the studio with portraits of aspiring and established film actors. | Portraits were associated with actors’ public images and personas. |
The comparison is about distinct commissions and uses, not a complete map of Indian portrait photography. Bollywood’s visual language travelled beyond film publicity, but these accounts do not establish how widely or uniformly local studios across the country adopted it.
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A later regional comparison: Suresh Punjabi in Nagda
A later example from Nagda shows another way cinematic imagery could shape local portraiture. In its account of photographer Suresh Punjabi, the Museum of Art & Photography describes him discussing the sentiment a sitter wanted to convey, miming poses and using magazine images as references. Punjabi put the task this way: “From the moment they walked in, I had to understand how they wanted to be seen.” This is a separate studio history, not evidence that Chand used the same method; it helps show how portrait-making could begin with a customer’s desired presentation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What changed as Chand’s style declined
In the account of Chand’s career, documentary filmmaker Christophe Prébois linked his later decline to the arrival of smaller, easier-to-use cameras and a resulting drop in demand for his style. Prébois also recalled that Chand lost interest as colour photography arrived. Those observations provide context for this studio’s trajectory; they should not be taken as a universal explanation for what happened to portrait studios elsewhere.
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The portraits endure as evidence of a particular meeting between local customers, a photographer and painter, and the visual vocabulary of Hindi cinema. Their stillness is part of that meeting: the sitter holds a formal pose, while the staged and painted image gives it room to swagger.
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