Atul Arun Kasbekar is an Indian Fashion photographer, Entrepreneur, and Bollywood film producer, who is known for the Kingfisher Calendar shoots.
Wiki/Biography
Atul Kasbekar was born on Thursday, 22 April 1965 (age 56 years; as of 2022) in Mumbai. His zodiac sign is Taurus. He did his schooling at Campion School, Mumbai. He further pursued his graduation at Jai Hind College, Mumbai. Subsequently, he joined UDCT (now Institute of Chemical Technology), Mumbai for chemical engineering however, he dropped out after the first year as he wanted to pursue his career in photography. He took admission in Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California in a photography course. Later, he took one year of training in photography in Los Angeles where he worked with photographers like Dennis Gray, Ron Slenzak, James B Wood, Jay Silverman, Jay P Morgan, Bill Werts, and David Le Bon.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 6’3″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Family
Atul belongs to a middle-class Konkani speaking family from Mumbai.
Parents & Siblings
Arun’s father’s name is Arun Kasbekar and his mother’s name is Prabha Kasbekar.
Childhood Image of Atul with his mother
Parents of Atul
Atul has three elder sisters Leena, Preeti, and Sarika. His sister Leena was conferred the State award called the Inns Bruck Award for innovation and research at MCI in 2020. His sister Preeti is a realtor in New Jersey.
Atul with his three elder sisters
Childhood picture of Atul with his elder sister Preeti
Wife & Children
Atul’s wife’s name is Vandana Kasbekar.
Atul has twins, one daughter, Naomi, and a son, Arnav Kasbekar. They are born on 16 September.
Picture of Atul with his children and wife
Career
In Photography
In 1990, Atul Kasbekar returned to India from the US. In 1991, he started his own photography studio, Negative Space. He worked with many celebrities like Katrina Kaif, Lisa Haydon, Deepika Padukone, Nargis Fakhri, Esha Gupta, and Shobita Dhulipal for the Kingfisher Calendar. He did shoots of more than ten editions of the Kingfisher Calendar at places like Mauritius (2003), Thailand (2004), South Africa (2005), Australia (2006), France-French Riviera (2007), India-Goa, Andaman, Ladakh and Udaipur (2008), Andaman Sea (2009), Maldives (2010), Mauritius (2011), and Negombo-Sri Lanka (2012).
Atul during the Kingfisher Calendar shoot
In Business
On 29 May 2007, Atul started a celebrity management company, Bling Entertainment Solutions Private Limited, in which he partnered with the leading international and national brands including PepsiCo, Nestle, HUL, ITC, Airtel, Kingfisher, Samsung, P&G, Sony, Swarovski, LG Mobiles, L’Oreal, Marico, Levi Strauss, Hublot, Toshiba, Panasonic, Canon, Johnson & Johnson, Nerolac, Teachers choice, Flipkart, and the Swatch Group. His company’s prominent clients are Vidya Balan, Manoj Bajpayee, Amol Parashar, Kangana Ranaut, Paresh Rawal, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sayani Gupta, Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal, Rahul Bose, Harleen Sethi, Purab Kohli, Kabir Bedi, Sakshi Tanwar, Cyrus Broacha, and Arjan Bajwa. Later, Atul Kasbekar launched the company, Corporate Image, which manages the identity of the top management and spokespersons within an organization. Kasbekar has worked with many corporate leaders including Ratan Tata, Vijay Mallya, and Anil Ambani. Atul is also the board of directors of many companies like Starmaker Advisors Private Limited, Bling Unplugged Productions Private Limited, Trevi Art Management Private Limited, and Ellipsis Entertainment Media Private Limited.
Film Producer
Apart from photography and business, Atul is also a film producer. He produced films like Devdas in 2002, Neerja in 2016, Tumhari Sulu in 2017, Why Cheat India in 2019, and Looop Lapeta in 2022.
Awards, Achievements
- In 2005, Atul Kasbekar won the prestigious International Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards (FAB Awards) held in London, for his work on Kingfisher Calendar.
- In 2017, Atul received the IIFA best picture award for the film, Neerja, as a film producer.
- Atul was also the honorary chairman of the Photographer’s Guild of India.
Controversies
- In 2017, Neerja Bhanot’s family planned to sue the filmmakers of the film, Neerja, for not honouring their commitment of sharing some per cent of box office collections with the Neerja Bhanot Trust. To this Atul Kasbekar the producer of the film, Neerja, come forward to clear the air and refute the allegation made by the Bhanot family. To this Atul replied that the conditions mentioned in the agreement were fulfilled by the makers of the film, Neerja and that too in a very transparent way, however, according to Atul, the Banot family decided to dispute the financial understanding even after having a proper agreement that was signed before the making of the film.
- In 2018, Atul’s name was added to the MeToo controversy, as he was accused by an actress of sexually harassing her during the shooting of the film ‘Cheat India’. To these allegations, Atul Kasbekar issued a statement, which was signed by the star cast of the film, Cheat India, Kasbekar, Tanuj Garg, Shanti Sivaram, Swati Iyer and Piya Sawhney, the statement said that
We have no received any complaint of inappropriate behaviour by Atul Kasbekar from any female member in our unit of ‘Cheat India’ during the shooting.”
Favourites
- Actress: Richa Chadha
- Travel Destination(s): Mykonos, Cape Town, Pamukkale in Turkey, Maldives, London, Europe, and the jungles of South Africa
- Sports: Basketball, Cricket, and Football
- Basketball Team: LA Lakers
- IPL Team: Mumbai Indians
- Football Team: Arsenal FC in England
- Cricket Player(s): Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Rohit Sharma
- Football Player(s): Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
- Basketball Player(s): Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and LeBron James
- Drinks: Gin and Tequila
Facts/Trivia
- Atul is an animal lover, he has joined PETA India. He also owns a dog, Barfee.
Atul with his dog
- In 2020, Atul got featured on a magazine cover, Talent Town.
- Atul enjoys doing yoga during his leisure time. He often posts his yoga asanas on Instagram and once he also said that yoga has changed his body.
- Atul is fond of luxury watches as he often posts pictures of his luxury wristwatches on Instagram.
Atul shares his first bought luxury watch
- He is a supporter of the project Nanhikali, a project to ensure every underprivileged girl child in India gets her right to education and dignity.
- In an Instagram post, Atul posted that his childhood favourite sweets were Kaju Katli and Moti Choor Laddoo.
- In 2017, Atul was the judge in India’s top model.
Atul as the judge in top model India
- O Pedro restaurant is one of the favourite vegetarian restaurants of Atul.
- In 2021, Atul took the opportunity to shoot the 200th film publicity campaign of his career.
- In an interview talking about his career, Atul said that
The camera is my first love, and as a producer on the film, it allowed me to give that visual shape even to the publicity campaign. I have been shooting campaigns for movies for over 3 decades and this one is truly special.”
- On 16 November 2013, an application named Signature Selfie was launched. This application gave chances to the person with the best-uploaded selfie to get shot by Atul Kasbekar.
- In 2019, Atul did the Kingfisher Calendar shoot in Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
- Atul’s first cameras were 110mm Kodak and Agfa Asoly Click –III.
- Atul admires photographers Richard Avedon, David LaChapelle, Jimmy Nelson, Raghu Rai, Herb Ritts, and Annie Leibovitz.
- In his leisure time, Atul enjoys cigars and playing sports, especially Indian Cricket and World Football.
Atul with his football team
- In 2017, Atul’s film, Neerja, won the National Award for the Best Feature Film in Hindi.
- According to Atul, when he worked as a photographer in Los Angeles, his producer used to take care of all his financial affairs.
- In an interview, Atul expressed his desire to work more on a personal project.
- During an interview, Atul revealed that the relationship that he had with Kingfisher for the last many years is perhaps the single longest partnership with a brand and a photographer ever in India.
- In 2020, during the pandemic, Atul raised funds through a charity initiative to source 20,000 PPE kits for frontline workers at over 40 hospitals across the country, and as a producer, he has initiated a dialogue about implementing COVID-19 insurance that covered shoots in pandemic times.
- Atul has a huge interest in sports. He has a bat that is signed by a cricketer, Vivian Richards, an MRF bat, which is one in 10 in the world signed by Trinidadian former international cricketer, Brian Lara. He also has signed bat by Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar. Atul also owns American boxer, Mohammed Ali’s boxing shorts and American basketball player, Kobe Bryant’s signed jersey.
- During an interview, Atul revealed that he had never shot for fairness creams and he had promoted duskier models more.
- According to Atul, he is not much into clubbing, he enjoys visiting museums and restaurants when he is on vacation.
- In an interview, Atul said that he desires to shoot Irina Shayk, a Russian model and actress for Kingfisher Calendar.
- In 2018, Atul Kasbekar came under the scanner after the shoot of the film, Why Cheat India, when an anonymous user accused him of sexual harassment. To these allegations, Atul Kasbekar issued a statement which was signed by the star cast of the film, Why Cheat India, Kasbekar, Tanuj Garg, Shanti Sivaram, Swati Iyer and Piya Sawhney, the statement said that
We have no received any complaint of inappropriate behaviour by Atul Kasbekar from any female member in our unit of ‘Cheat India’ during the shooting.”
- Atul considers India’s finest portrait photographer, Gautam Rajadhyaksh, as his mentor and inspiration.
