"I’d much rather be, Ari Gold than Jerry McGuire" – Atul Kasbekar: Part 2

Knowing the fact that he is India’s busiest agent handling top models and celebrities, there’s one thing Atul Kasbekar would never do – hold his phone eight inches from his head and shout ‘F*** You’. But honestly, Read More">how much can you learn about Atul Kasbekar through his mobile? He keeps two of them that IRead More

Knowing the fact that he is India's busiest agent handling top models and celebrities, there's one thing Atul Kasbekar would never do - hold his phone eight inches from his head and shout 'F*** You'. But honestly, how much can you learn about Atul Kasbekar through his mobile? He keeps two of them that I already know. Now try giving him two options and see his head twirl - Choose the one you can't live without: your mobile or your camera? Ah! That's where you catch Atul. Whatever he chooses is his call but I know one thing's certain - his obsession for the lens will never fade away. He loves his camera and those bodies wrapped in bikinis rolling on the sand. His lens talks more than he does and if you don't believe me, type these words on Google - 'Kingfisher Calendar Girls' and you'll find 1,42,4000 results in seconds. Did you? Now go 'drool' and for a change, we'll let Atul do the talking. Click Click Bling! Presenting you Agent Kasbekar in this Part 2 exclusive!

"I'd much rather be, Ari Gold than Jerry McGuire"
I don't try and get inspired from Ari Gold because I am Ari Gold...but a lot more polite (laughs). It's not funny how many people called me when Entourage started and said, 'Holy S***, they've just made a show on you'. Let me put it this way, I'd much rather be Ari Gold than, Jerry McGuire. This is my confidence doing the talk and nothing else - I feel there are some deals that nobody else could've pulled off but we got a kick out of doing it. The Union Bank of India commercials were really good. The commercials involved A.R Rahman's mother, Sachin Tendulkar's brother and there's Vijendra Singh's brother. It's not about the big names but to convince each of the siblings was the toughest part and I feel proud that we did it.

“I’ve often been voted – ‘The Man with the best Job’ in India. I love the beach, babes and beer” My first Kingfisher shoot was in the year 2003. I was in Matrix at that time. Matrix was formed in 2001. I am still obsessed with the beach, Read More">beer and babes. I’ve often been votedRead More

"I've often been voted - 'The Man with the best Job' in India. I love the beach, babes and beer"
My first Kingfisher shoot was in the year 2003. I was in Matrix at that time. Matrix was formed in 2001. I am still obsessed with the beach, beer and babes. I've often been voted - 'The Man with the best Job' in India (laughs). Honestly, it's a great job but it's an assignment at the end of the day. We shot in Ladakh in 2008. We had taken a lot of help from locals there. We had our staff too. Now those people haven't seen chics in a bikini for a long time. But you can sense the palpable excitement thinking that she will now pose in her bikini. Girls also were a little uneasy. I'm not kidding, but in three to four hours, the girls were sitting in the bikinis with their bathrobes kept somewhere and the men were passing by selling their coffees and moving along. Kingfisher Calendar is the most phenomenal launching pad ever for models.

"We are planning to launch the coffee table book this year post monsoon on the ten year completion of the Kingfisher Calendar"
You have to reinvent whatever you do, every time, and add layers. There is always the question - Will you succeed this time or not? We've finished ten years since we started the Kingfisher Calendar and we are planning to unveil the special coffee table book. We are hoping that by post monsoon we should be ready. We've added lot's of layers to the Kingfisher Calendar. It's not just the girls in bikinis but which country are they from, who has sponsored the bikinis, which celebrity is launching the calendar, what country is the shoot taking place in, etc. Everything is a property in itself. There is also the making of Kingfisher calendar.

“Kingfisher Beer and Calendar is synonymous to sexy, elegant, Read More">classy” Vijay Mallya sat down with me and explained this to me – Your two hundred friends and associates who read the foreign fashion mags are very insignificantly small percentage of the population that I am concerned with. This is a beer. From Bill Gates andRead More

"Kingfisher Beer and Calendar is synonymous to sexy, elegant, classy"
Vijay Mallya sat down with me and explained this to me - Your two hundred friends and associates who read the foreign fashion mags are very insignificantly small percentage of the population that I am concerned with. This is a beer. From Bill Gates and to the peons in India and whoever in-between can conceivably enjoy one if not many beers in their lifetime as compared to the twenty year old whisky or cognac. Beer goes across economic barriers, gender, age and appeals to the widest common denominator across the globe. So what happens when the calendar is called Kingfisher calendar. How does it resemble the beer? Well, it's elegant, sexy, classy and appeals to the whole wide world.

"I want to see niceness in the model's eyes. I hate pouts and if anyone gives me that, I stop shooting"
There is next to nothing the kingfisher models are wearing. There is hardly 50cm of fabric they sport. I tell them that they are already looking brilliant, sexy and so don't bring that in the picture. That's very essential. To brief them is integral part of what I do. I don't need pouts and I tell them that I need to know them better and I want to see niceness in their eyes. If anyone gives me those cliché looks I stop shooting and take a small walk. I take them to my monitor and show them their photos and delete the pictures. We start from the scratch.

Read More">“My obsession with Football and Arsenal started over a game of Pictionary” I thank my friend Rahul Guha. He is in India now but he used to be in the U.K. We used to play endless rounds of Pictionary. All the sports questions used to do with football and the guy who made up thoseRead More

"My obsession with Football and Arsenal started over a game of Pictionary"
I thank my friend Rahul Guha. He is in India now but he used to be in the U.K. We used to play endless rounds of Pictionary. All the sports questions used to do with football and the guy who made up those questions was surely from the UK because all the questions revolved around Arsenal. I got to know about Arsenal through Pictionary. That's how my obsession with football started. It's a great game. I used to play very good basketball and cricket and captained my junior college team too. Also, being a photographer is the biggest advantage. I just shot with three of the greats in football four to five months ago - Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres.

Click here to read Part 1