I am still learning: Amyn Hooda

Amyn Hooda, who hit gold after shooting stills of Delhi Belly, says photography is not as simple as it sounds.

Amyn Hooda started photography as a hobby when his sister and mother gifted him an SLR camera. "Years later my father gifted me a digital SLR," he says, adding, "Playing with this new gadget I captured my uncle’s wedding in Frenchay, Bristol. The photographs turned out to be superb. He showed them to Avinash Gowarikar, who asked to me pursue photography professionally and offered to train me."



Thus happened the photoshoot for Delhi Belly followed by I Hate Luv Stories, Ek Main Aur Ek Tu and Housefull 1 among others. Amyn feels focus and willingness to work hard are important in this field.

Delhi Belly

He says, "Don’t get lured by glamour. It’s not as easy and simple. A lot of hard work along with technical knowledge will take you up there. Develop your own style. In one line I’d say – Keep educating yourself constantly. I am still learning. The deeper you go, the deeper it gets."

‘She is creative’
Poorna is a sweetheart. She is extremely professional, creative, very interactive and would constantly come up with innovative ideas. We had just wrapped up the shoot for Delhi Belly and we had only 20 minutes left before sunset. During this shot, the light was super low. And it was quite funny actually because I asked Poorna to stand like a statue or else I wouldn’t get the shot I wanted. We got only six shots without a motion blur out of 10, as I shot on 15 shutter and the skies were really dark, it was a nice winter evening in Mumbai.

‘Akshay’s chilled out and fun’
Akshay Kumar is chilled out and fun on the sets. He was very excited and enthusiastic to get this shot right and we went around and tried quite a few shots, but sometimes the splash would cover his entire face and sometimes there would only be droplets. When I clicked this one, without looking at the screen I knew I had got it right.

‘Like an elder bro’
I share an amazing rapport with Imran Khan, I have done three movies with him — Delhi Belly, I Hate Luv Stories and currently Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, which will release soon. He is cooperative, a thorough professional, focused, sharp and knows what he wants, but at the same time he’s open to new ideas. He is extremely calm. I have learnt a lot from him and he has played an important role in my career and guided me whenever I needed advice. He is like an elder brother to me.

‘Most photogenic’
Sonam Kapoor is the most photogenic person I have shot with. It’s in her genes. This photograph was shot in New Zealand. She didn’t even know I was shooting her, but yet she makes it come alive. Her simplicity, innocence, the stillness of the water, the azure sky with a hint of orange and the entire serenity brings it to life. We share quite a professional relationship and she is a photographers dream. It’s hard to pick the best pictures amongst all of hers, as all her photographs are brilliant.