Karan Kapoor: From Dream Lover of Bombay Dyeing ads to award-winning photographer

A Bombay Dyeing ad catapulted him into popular imagination in India three decades ago. Today, Karan Kapoor is one of the most sought after lifestyle advertising photographers

Circa 1986: Television had just forayed into Indian homes and commercial advertising was spreading itself wide to experiment with different themes and ideas. To lure the audiences, many ad campaigns carefully constructed an image of a mascot that could embody the core essence of the brand. Enter Bombay Dyeing, a leading menswear brand, with its Dream Lover campaign. At the heart of these ads would be an alpha male flaunting the collection with his effortless, easy charm. The ads generated mass hysteria, as did the titular Dream Lover, aka Karan Kapoor, son of veteran actors Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal.
In the world of glamour in India, Kapoor is a surname that comes with several associations, chief among them being that of the 'first family of Bollywood'. There is, usually, an expectation of grandiose with everything that the illustrious Kapoor family does in show business. Naturally then, one is tempted to ask - could there be a bigger back story to the Bombay Dyeing ad that catapulted Karan Kapoor into popular imagination? "I did it for the love of Mrs Wadia's (Maureen Wadia, wife of Nusli Wadia, chairman of Wadia Group that owns Bombay Dyeing) fish curry to be honest," he says.

Karan Kapoor in the Bombay Dyeing ad
Could a fish curry actually lead to an iconic moment on television? A few minutes into our conversation with Karan Kapoor and it gets easier to come to terms with that possibility. There is no practised perfection in his demeanor, no tendency to measure his words. Just a desire to engage and tell his story. Many in India may remember him as, arguably, Bollywood's only 'blonde' hero (he appeared in films such as Sultanat and Loha) and the quintessential Dream Lover of Bombay Dyeing ads, but today, he is a distinguished name in the world of advertising photography and has won prestigious awards and international recognition for his work. As an 'lifestyle advertising photographer', Karan has also worked on several campaigns in Dubai, shooting features for Atlantis The Palm, Jumeirah and Wild Wadi, among others. Apart from his work in advertising, a grand exhibition of his photographs - Time and Tide - taken over the years is currently being showcased in different cities in India, with the Delhi inauguration taking place this week. His photographs, peopled by men and women belonging to different cultural contexts, are a testament to his ability to study the moment, and how human beings react to them.
From his brief stint in Bollywood to his much acclaimed run as a photographer, Karan's journey seems fascinating. He assures us it wasn't quite so. Bollywood of the 80s, he says, was a funny period. "In those days, films were real masala entertainers. There was no script. There was a storyline and the dialogue was given to you on the day. You never knew what was going on."
It is said that many of the photographs he shot for Time and Tide were taken around this period. From being part of a chaotic movie set to finding solitude in Goan homes, it may not have been easy to inhabit the two diametrically opposite worlds. "We were always encouraged to find our own path. Maybe that wasn't such a good thing. I don't know," he laughs, "The thing is that not all the Kapoors are incredible successful. It's a double-edged sword. You may try and try, but still not be able to make it. I never really tried that hard because at that time, I just couldn't see where I could have fitted in. I remember this one film I did that was called Afsar (meaning officer), which never got released. People would be like, 'What is this blonde guy doing playing an inspector?' It was so awkward and just didn't seem right. Maybe that's why I never really had my heart in it. My major talents lay elsewhere."
To explore these talents, Karan decided to move to the UK and start this journey from scratch. The decision was informed by his desire to pursue his dream followed by a realisation that to the Indian cinema-going audiences, he would always be a "foreigner". "I was very blonde then. Even in films, it would have been very hard for the audiences to accept me. So, I thought I would spend time between the UK and India. But then I met someone, got married and that, kind of, anchors you down," he says.
Photography also appealed to a part of Karan that was more introverted. Last year, an article in the leading Indian daily Hindustan Times quoted his sister Sanjna saying, "There's a story about him from before I was born, when he was about three or four, on a family trip to Singapore. Karan and Kunal were at a store and Kunal must have been running around.nobody noticed Karan until they found him standing in front of a display case, tears running down his cheeks. He was looking at a plastic camera - and, of course, my parents bought it for him."
Karan laughs as he is reminded of this little anecdote from childhood. "As a kid, I used to swim a lot, that's also an introverted kind of sport. You are essentially training on your own. It's like meditation. I have always been attracted to solitude." An option film photography didn't really afford him during his brief spell. "When I left school, I was apprentice to cameraman (turned-director) Govind Nihalani. What didn't attract me was this system of units, so many people. One didn't have total control. That's why photography is such a peculiar thing. You're very much on your own, although in advertising, it does become a team effort. But I also do a lot of travel photography, which is again about working on my own. I guess I have struck a balance between both."
As we speak, there is a palpable excitement in his voice, which finally reveals itself - his daughter Aliya is going to the university. "She is studying philosophy. And I think, she might just be the first Kapoor to go to a university. Maybe Mickey (Shammi Kapoor's son) or his children went. Anyway, she is very brainy; I really don't know where she gets it from," he jokes.
Having been brought up largely in the UK, his children - son Zak and daughter Aliya - aren't too familiar with the ways of Bollywood, but Karan says they do occasionally Google his films and "find them hilarious". "They know more about the larger family legacy now than before. They know about Kareena (Kapoor Khan) more than anyone else."
Given that both his parents were respected actors in their own right, one is tempted to ask the clichéd question - his favourite films of Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal? "Junoon and 36 Chowringhee Lane are incredibly good films. If they were to be made now, they'd have done much better. I think there is an appreciation of good cinema now, which was missing earlier," he says. "In the 80s, they couldn't even get a trolley movement smooth or a panning movement right. The only one who could do it right was Satyajit Ray." Would he don a director's hat then? "Advertising has taught me that, I think. How to take charge of a set! So, maybe!" Amen!