SECOND LIFE

Doing it with panache

PHOTO: MUNNA S.

Varied interests: Kelly Dorji

This Middle Path follower oozes calm, be it on the television show that he hosts or during his walk on the ramp, when he is not choreographing it that is. He may be your ramp-to-reel success story, a Gladrags Manhunt find who made it to the big scree n, but after a tête-À-tête with Kalden Dorji a.k.a Kelly Dorji one finds that he has more on his platter than playing the bad man for which he got an award recently.

In his own admission he says, “Who would think that a Kelly Dorji, who kills children and women and men so convincingly on screen, would also be that nice guy down the road who walks from his house to the vegetable market to buy his lemon grass?” Born in a picturesque Bhutan, Kelly studied in Mumbai where his foray into arc lights happened. If the model-turned-actor is not posing for the camera, he is sure to be wielding one. Photography one finds is one of the few things that the actor has a special place for in his scheme of things.

From hosting shows on television to being in the limelight and then behind the lens. How/when did you take up photography?

In Bhutan where I grew up, my parents had a large coffee table book called the Illustrated Book of Life which I loved to look through everyday during my winter holidays. My reaction to the book ranged over time, from initial shock to fascination and then deeper insights as I grew. Each year the book carried new meaning to how I saw the same pictures over and over finally culminating in the eventual realisation that photography is about capturing the soul of a moment and that I would also like to see life as I did in the book...the good the bad and the ugly... it was just an insight....and when I finally met a true master in photography discipline, the late Chien-Wien Lee, I realised that I could use the opportunity and learn from him. So along with being in front of the camera I slogged behind it as well.

Working with Chein-Wien Lee. How has the experience been?

I approached Chien-Wien Lee soon after he first took pictures of me for a magazine and he denied me point blank! But I realized he had left room for a second approach so I approached him again. And when he turned me away again, I grew more determined and realised that I could not accept to learn from anyone else. Finally he accepted me on the provision that I carry his 80 kilo equipment around for six months without touching the lights or camera once they were set up! I mopped floors after shoots and drove equipment back to his office after late night shoots, simultaneously trying to maintain some glamour and trying to rest for my own modelling assignments which I would often rush to after assisting Mr. Lee. In all the time I learned from Mr. Lee, I found a mentor in him as well as a formal friend who just happened to be the most brilliant photographer, technically, I ever met. He was an honourable gentleman who in turn learnt from the father of modern Indian glamour photography, and another splendid man—Adrian Stevens whom I still meet today. Chien-Wien was like family - father figure, elder brother, teacher and friend to me till his death in August 2008. It a year since he died and I have not really taken any pictures except for an occasional moment when I have a flash of feeling that it is his vision. It hurts every time I look through a lens.

Has your penchant for shooting taken you to different places?

I travelled with Mr Lee on some assignments to Nepal, South India and so on but as for my own photography, I never travelled as a result of taking it up. My ultimate aim has been to become an actor, since I was eight. Yet on the other hand, my work has led me to many places which have in turn allowed me to take pictures where and when I can. My favourite method is black and white portraits and landscaping and sometimes both together!

Have you captured Bhutan with your camera?

I have viewed Bhutan through my camera lens many times and always ended up dissatisfied with my results because I really have not, over all this time, been able to show what I feel for my country through a photograph that I feel is perfect! Yet a few, among them being one that I took in October 2008, which offers you a view of Paro Valley from the house where I grew up it is pretty close to perfect in its soul.

You have been associated with the cause of Tibet. Tell us about it.

I had on one occasion joined fellow Buddhists from all over at a prayer meet to pray for Tibet and Tibetans around the world. As a Buddhist, I pray for the eventual peace of mankind and consideration towards all.

Yet another zennesque area Auroville. There is a movie by Shamin Desai with that name...

Auroville 316, incidentally, had nothing to do with the place Auroville except that it was the eventual destination of our story! We never went there or showed it to our audience! But in retrospect the entire film was a metaphor, from driving on brown seats in a blue car in a brown desert surrounded by blue skies to the colourful characters and dull ones in the eventual decay of man and the unsaid point at the end when we never reach the utopia we are travelling to.

Coming to films, you seem to be the new good-looking avatar of a bad man.

I was never a gifted student and so I became a man by trusting my instincts and meditating on every source of inspiration I could find. I often talk with the very learned Mani Shankar about films and through our meetings have learnt that there can be no good without evil and vice versa, a ying and yang if you like. And I am kind by nature so I like to explore my other natures. I am sure I have many natures in me. I find that I am able to channelise a few of them well and within my control. I like playing characters as well.

Do you plan to have an exhibition of your photographs?

No. Maybe one day I will allow the world to see my collective thought but not until I have long left the earth. I often fight to hold back criticism in photography yet I cannot accept any towards my own though it does not extend to any other part of my life.

Photography and choreography...any similarities? How has the choreography experience been.

Lubna Adams is arguably the greatest model to have walked our runways in India. When I first met her she had already started choreography and after numerous shows with her as a model, I displayed an interest in learning about what went into preparing fashion shows. She was a dream to learn from. Both Noyonika Chatterjee and Mehar Bhasin would agree with me when I say, we learnt from the best! Today, she is a close friend and a sister figure to me. Both photography and choreography have been integral to who I am today yet I separated them from each other as they were both meditations that would eventually merge in the lesson learnt from the respective crafts.

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