Raghu Rai's camera was a compass for truth: Madhur Bhandarkar pays tribute after photographer's death

Raghu Rai, one of India’s most renowned photographers, died at a private hospital in Delhi on Sunday.

Raghu Rai, one of India’s most renowned photographers, died at a private hospital in Delhi on Sunday. He was 83. His son, photographer Nitin Rai, said he had been battling cancer for the past two years. Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar paid a heartfelt tribute for the late photographer in his X account.

Madhur Bhandarkar penned a note for Raghu Rai.

What Madhur said about Raghu Rai

Sharing a picture with him, Madhur wrote, “Sad to hear of Raghu Rai’s sir demise. During my research for the film #InduSarkar, he gave great insight into India’s Emergency. His camera was a compass for truth, and his work a meditation on life. Sir you will be deeply missed and forever celebrated.”

His film Indu Sarkar was based on the 21-month Emergency between 1975 and 1977 imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Who was Raghu Rai?

Raghu Rai produced more than 18 books, founded the Raghu Rai Centre for Photography in Haryana in 2016, and was honoured with the Padma Shri and the Lucie Foundation's Master of Photojournalism awards.

Rai started his professional career in the mid-1960s and joined The Statesman in New Delhi in 1965 as a photographer. During this period, he covered a range of national events and, in 1968, visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram when British band The Beatles were there.

Born on December 18, 1942, at Jhang in Punjab — now in Pakistan — Rai stumbled into photography almost accidentally, borrowing a camera from his elder brother S Paul in the 1960s. That accident became a career that would take him to Magnum Photos, to the front pages of Time, Life, and The New Yorker magazines, and to the heart of India's most defining moments — the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Bhopal gas tragedy, the quiet grandeur of the Ganga ghats.

"Colour photographs tend to lack seriousness. The colours are exaggerated; not real," he said in a 2016 conversation with Hindustan Times at the Panchkula Art and Literary Festival.

Raghu Rai supported a relief initiative aimed at assisting victims of devastating floods that submerged over a thousand villages in Punjab in the latter half of 2025.

The ‘Prints of Punjab’ initiative, conceived by Rai’s daughter Avani Rai, who is also a photographer, was for fundraising for on-ground relief efforts by a group called Global Sikhs, with support from Method India, focused on rehabilitation. The initiative highlighted the severe impact on livelihoods and the resilience of affected communities through ‘Chardi Kala’, a resilience concept from Sikhism.