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World Photography Day 2025| Harshvardhan Rane: A photograph, for me, is like the thought of a person
On World Photography Day today, Harshvardhan Rane opens up on his love for the camera, how it helps him in acting and creating awareness through it
It’s been 15 years since Harshvardhan Rane started his love affair with the camera from behind it, and it was because of a friend in Hyderabad who let him play around with his camera. But in the last seven years, it has turned into a serious passion. “A photograph, for me, is like the thought of a person,” he tells us on World Photography Day.
The actor adds, “There could be 10000 people given a camera but they will all click the same thing differently. That means that everyone sees and looks at things in a very different way. This aspect of photography has kept me hooked, that if you change the angle a little bit, the perspective changes and it tells a completely different story.”
Harshvardhan Rane insists that his love for photography has helped him in acting too. “It helps me to know what is happening behind the camera so that I'm able to assist and help my director of photography, my cinematographer and director. Recently, (director) Omung Kumar sir and my DOP complimented me and told me that I could angle myself better as per the given light, when we shot in a cave, which is the world's largest cave in Vietnam,” he shares.
The actor’s Instagram page is filled with his photography work and his muse is mostly the wildlife. Ask him why he loves to capture animals and he says, “It’s because of the fact that they don't listen to you. If you tell a human how to pose, they will listen and you can take a good picture. But for me, the challenging bit is when my subject doesn't understand my language and I love it when I am able to capture them in their glory and anticipate their movement. They are unpredictable just like life. They teach me to wait patiently like I've been waiting in my career. It teaches me the importance of perseverance, that if I wait long enough, there could be magic.”
Harshvardhan insists that photography is not an escape for him, as it is for many actors who take it up. “I am so used to challenges in life and photography serves as another challenge for me,” he says, adding, “I like that when I click a rare species like a Red Panda, people ask me about it. So, it creates awareness about them and that is one of the best byproducts of photography,” he says.
The actor admits to have dedicated a bit of his life to photography. “An entire room in my house is full of my photography gear,” he shares, but adds that he has never thought of exhibiting his work. “I'm just happy if I am able to capture a new species. I have captured the Red Panda twice, which is one of the rarest species in the world. I have even captured the Snow Leopard, so I feel extremely lucky and happy about it. Now, I want to go to the North Pole, in the extreme difficult conditions and capture the Arctic Fox,” he ends.
