Here are some images on the making of Lord Ganesha followed by a video of Lord Ganesha set. The video was filmed by Roberto Farruggio who shadowed me in India and it was edited by Lily Huang. All images behind the scenes below were also photographed by Roberto Farruggio and by a few are by Varun Sathe, a talented student of Bhartiya Vidya Peeth School of Photography.

My New York Times Article links specifically mentions Bhartiya Vidya Peeth school of Photography in Pune. Also known as B.V.S.P.
B.V.S.P’s students and instructors were pro active in taking part in the Darshan project, Ashish Gurbani formerly assisted me on the making of Maa Laxmi, and Mukul Anand, Varun Sathe, Urmit Talavia and Cheryl Zorini Bhorania to name a few were frequenters on the set working towards making Darshan a success.

B.V.S.P’s role in this process was integral and they were true agents of art. By offering their school’s resources, their premises and equipment  as well as their students, BVSP truly promoted collaboration. I would take a moment to look into the school and what it offers. Rajan Chaughule, president and dean at B.V.S.P in specific was a facilitator in every way he could be for the project. I also want to specifically thank Siddhartha Mudaliar, an instructor at B.V.S.P whose extra set of eyes on the set were much appreciated.

Date: Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Time: 7 pm
Venue: 136 West 21st street, Room 418 F

Darshan my most recent pride and joy, was a project that got successfully funded on Kickstarter a month ago. I have just freshly returned from Mumbai where I was deep into production creating the next four images in this series of 9. I just wanted to share Roberto’s work with you and say that many of my behind the scenes stills and movies to come, will be owing to his ardent following. Below is a picture of him in india with me capturing footage for Darshan.

Here is a quick sample of Roberto’s work below but I encourage you to take a look at his style and imagery on his website.

Please keep tuned to some incredible production stills of how Darshan was manufactured and touched by many people’s hard and ardent work on sets.

I arrived a day before the Ganesh festival ended. Ganesh Chaturthi is a very celebrated festival in India and particularly Mumbai. This timing was intentional.
My trip is sandwiched between Ganesha Chaturthi and Navratri which is the Durga Festival. Inspirations of these idols surround the city with lights, festivities and tons of artistic inspiration. Painters and sculptors who have done this for years shine during this time.

Ganesh Chaturti in Pune - Shot by Urmit

Above is an image shot by a student and Camera assistant Urmit. This is a scene from the Ganesha idol being carried down the streets to be immersed into water. The idol lord Ganesha is placed in a decorated temple on the first day of this festival and then worshipped for days until it’s immersed in the waters only to return the following year. Here are some shots from the Ganesha Idol that was in our home in Mumbai.

The 2011 Ganesha idol at the Sharma residence

Mom and dad praying before the immerse the idol ta the beach

Dad lights the fire using camphor at a very windy Versova beach

Children rejoice as they sing hymns of Lord Ganesha

Taking the idol away for immersion on the last day of Ganesha Festival.

Streets gets jammed and traffic packed as people navigate to the shores with idols that fit in your palms to a few floors high. It’s quite the sight! It had been ten years since I had celebrated this festival with my parents and brother. I was glad to be home.

Darshan from Manjari Sharma on Vimeo.

A flag was built the models lined up like ducks in a row and the shoot was memorable. With 10 agency cats + clients pulling an all night’er in India our shoot was on time with a happy and content crew and photog. Here are some fun out takes from the shoot.

So here are the Billboards.