Remembering that time Ranbir Kapoor took the limelight at Chembur's R. K. Studio Ganpati Celebrations

It's Ganpati Visarjan Day, and this day in Chembur meant you got to see the Kapoors march down Sion Trombay Road with the R. K. Studio procession. 

It was usually Rishi, Randhir & Rajiv Kapoor, but this picture I took in 2011 saw Ranbir Kapoor take the limelight.

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Rockstar Incoming
It was just before the release of Rockstar (2011) and few months into me getting a DSLR camera. This picture was heavily influenced by photographer Ritesh Uttamchandani's lecture at Gujarat Research Society, Khar where he explained how photojournalism had a lot to do with the audience reactions and not just the star.

And I'd seen these reactions through the years, growing up in this area of Chembur in Mumbai, where around noon there would be a sudden uproar in the beats of the dhol and you'd know that the R. K. Studio Ganpati was here. People would wait for hours to catch a glimpse of the Kapoor family. It was crazy day to be driving from the suburbs to the city.

RK Studio Ganpati Visarjan 2017 | Ranbir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir  Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor - YouTube

So, that year I decided I'd go and get a picture. Didn't do a great job but at least we have a photo memory that'll help you get an idea what the craze was like until 2018. The building in the back was not even functional and people had climbed on top of it.

People with higher flats with balconies along the road were your best friends that day. You look up and you'd just see people climbing on top of things, armed with a 2 something mega-pixel camera phones (that is much later though) trying to record this moment in their life.

The year 2018 I believe was the last year of the Ganeshe Chaturthi celebrations at R. K. Studios in Mumbai, also the last one we saw Rishi Kapoor at. If you haven't seen the celebrations in person, take a look at this video below. 





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