EXCLUSIVE: Avinash Gowariker Reveals Being ‘Frozen’ And Starstruck The FIRST Time He Photographed Amitabh Bachchan; Confesses, “I Died Inside”

Avinash Gowariker is a renowned photographer celebrated for his work in celebrity and advertising photography, particularly within the Bollywood industry. He started his career as an assistant director and has worked with Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone and others. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, Avinash Gowariker recalls his first shooting with Amitabh Bachchan and his AD Campaign shoot with Big B and Shah Rukh Khan.

Avinash Gowariker Opens Up On Photoshoot With Amitabh Bachchan

When shown a picture of Mr Amitabh Bachchan, Avinash Gowariker said, “What else can I say? Except that I’m blessed. How can I have Mr. Bachchan laughing with me like this, sitting with me like this? I’m… I’m blessed. I have nothing else to say. That man—that man is just incredible. You didn’t ask me anything about him in the interview, because if you had, the interview would’ve ended up being all about him. What do I say about him? Legend, inspiration, father figure. God.”

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Avinash Gowariker Recalls FIRST Meeting With Amitabh Bachchan

When asked about his first meeting with Big B, Gowariker said, “Yeah. Yeah, very clearly. It was Virudh. I had never shot him before, and it happened very late in my career, comparatively late. A friend of mine offered a shoot and said, ‘What do you say, man?’ I said, Mind-blowing!’ So I went. We were shooting somewhere in Juhu. I was very excited. He arrived. I was introduced to him. The photographer was there. We were shooting a campaign.“

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Continuing, he said, “He came, got ready in 10 minutes, stood in front of the camera, and said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ And I died inside. I’ve said this many times before, I still ask him this, how can someone with that voice say, ‘What do you want me to do?’ What are we supposed to say to Mr. Bachchan? Pose like this? Sit? Stand? Laugh? I froze. I said, ‘Sir… nothing. I’ll shoot.’ And I shot. That was my first meeting with him.”

Avinash On Shooting Experience With Amitabh

Adding further, he said, “Then there was a little gap, and I shot the Aladdin poster. There was a running shot—we were doing this white suit running scene. He was like, ‘Come on!’ So I shot that. And I told him, ‘Sir, you will never know what it feels like to look through your lens and have Amitabh Bachchan running toward you.’ You can’t praise him—he doesn’t like it. He’ll say, ‘Shut up, shut up.’ You can’t say anything good about him. So I said, ‘Sir, you’ll never understand’. It was a very high-energy shoot. I shout a lot when I shoot—I was like, ‘Yes! Mind-blowing!’ And then, in his blog the next day, he wrote something like, ‘Fun to shoot with his constant yelps…’ From there, it got better and better. I started shooting him more and more. And he is inexplicable.”

He added, “He’ll come and play music. ‘What is this rubbish music?’ he’ll say. ‘Play this—you haven’t heard this latest one?’ He’ll put on music no one else has even heard of. You cannot play bad music around him—he loves music. Either classical or the latest beats—he knows it all. He’s too cool. His shoes, his specs, his everything. We have to learn from him. He’s probably the physical embodiment of cinema across decades. Command over everything he does: the way he speaks, the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he sits, the way he treats people, the humility, and punctuality. Unbelievable. I’m blessed he chose to work with me.”

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Avinash On Big B & SRK’s AD Campaign

When shown a picture of Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan running, Avinash recalled, “Oh boss, I can only thank God that I got to shoot this. Unbelievable, it was to shoot both of them running toward the lens. What do I even say? This photo—just unbelievable. And you know, I very rarely take pictures of myself with actors. But that day, I did. I stood in the centre and said, ‘Sir, both of you… This was mind-blowing. For that ad, this was something else.’ And it’s a real shot, okay? No post-production magic. They’re not edited in together—they actually ran side by side, and I captured that moment. Even the way they walk—it was always just mind-blowing.”

Watch The Full Interview

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Avinash Gowariker Talks About Shah Rukh Khan’s Bond With Sons Aryan And AbRam Khan; Reveals The REAL Reason Aryan Khan Laughs In Iconic Family Pictures Shot In Mannat