Forty years in focus

Starting his career in 1968 as a freelance Press photographer and progressing to become a professional lensman for navjotes, weddings and parties, Rashid D. Bamanbehram has notched up 40 years behind the camera. The bearded photographer and his wife Armaity are a frequent sight at community functions, he behind the camera while his soul mate ably records the festivities on a video camera which she shoulders with panache. She has become a force to reckon with in her own right, with 27 years of experience behind her.

Early in his career Bollywood music directors Kalyanji and Anandji gave Bamanbehram his first big break when they asked him to cover their musical program, the Kalyanji Anandji Nite, recalls the photographer in a write-up forwarded to Parsiana. They were "very happy” with his "fast photography capturing the right angles,” so they introduced Bamanbehram to the "world’s greatest hypnotist” Max Colliee who had come from Scotland to exhibit his skills here. Bamanbehram covered all 125 shows Colliee performed in Bom­bay. There was no looking back after that and with assignments to cover film premiers pouring in, he became known to many film stars.

Rashid and Armaity Bamanbehram: camera couple

Bamanbehram recalls that his first Press photograph — of a fire which gutted Dwarkadas Mansion at Pratha­na Samaj — was published with his byline in the Gujarati newspapers Jam-e-Jamshed and The Bombay Samachar as well as the Marathi language daily Navakal. In the decades that followed he garnered a clutch of awards for his work — three state awards, the first one being in 1977 — for action photography of fire and rescue operations, accidents and house collapses in Bombay. In 1980 Bamanbehram received an award for bravery, a silver medal and certificate from the Bombay Parsi Punchayet for taking pictures at great risk to his own life and limb. Recognition has also come from the Giants Group of Ghatkopar and the Rotary Club whose president Adi Mulla presented him the best Press photography award for 1988-89, as per the write-up.

The intrepid photographer is known to be helpful to people in distress and has reached out to accident victims, prevented the kidnapping of a child at Bharuch railway station and helped rescue a college girl who was being threatened by a knife-wielding goon (the girl boarded a taxi and vanished from the scene without even a word of thanks). Bamanbehram, who lives at Bombay’s Khareghat Colony, invariably carries with him some bottles of cold drinking water for the traffic policemen manning the signal outside the Colony. In the summer heat thirsty police personnel wait for him and bless him for his thoughtfulness, the write-up reveals.