Obituary | Prabuddha Dasgupta passes away!

Fashion photographer, Prabuddha Dasgupta passed away on Sunday 12th August 2012 following a heart attack. His passing away has left a deep void in the cultural and creative industry of fashion and advertising.

 

Dasgupta’s career took off when he joined Enterprise, founded by Mohammed Khan, a veteran in advertising. Though Khan wanted him to join him as a copywriter, Dasgupta’s heart was set on fashion photography. It was when Khan gave him his first assignment in the early 80’s that Dasgupta bagged his first opportunity in fashion photography . From then on there was no looking back for Dasgupta.  Later he went on to become a freelance fashion photographer. During his first assignment with Khan, Dasgupta was introduced to French fashion designer Pierre Cardin who was in India at the time. Cardin was deeply impressed with his work and he won accolades from him.

 

He was also known for his book ‘Women’ which was a controversial collection of nude portraits which was later published as a book. He also wrote ‘Ladakh’ which explore the wilderness of India’s frontier. He has also worked for Femina and The Times Of India.

 

He was settled in Goa and lived life on his own terms.

 

In the fashion and Bollywood industry he has worked with a host of actresses and models including Lara Dutta and Lakshmi Menon.

 

The bigwigs of the industry were shocked to hear of his death. Naveen Gaur, President , Lowe Lintas, said that he was one of the greatest photographers who was able to change the concept of fashion photography in India. He found him to be a person full of integrity who never compromised with anything.

 

Mohammed Khan who was closely associated with Dasgupta remembers him as becoming a star overnight after Pierre Cardin recognized his works.

 

The Bollywood and fashion fraternity is still trying to come to terms with this loss. Social media Twitter and Facebook is brimming with messages of tribute for him. Some of the names from the film and fashion industry who have tweeted include Neha Dhupia, fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar, Designer Masaba Gupta, actress Sonam Kapor, Bipasha Basu, Farhan Akhtar and Sahil Shroff.