Kamat Foto Flash
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Briefly
Shruti Sonal, July 8, 2025: The Times of India
When Muzaffar Ali’s ‘Umrao Jaan’ released in 1981, its poetic storytelling, the enigmatic Rekha, Asha Bhonsle’s unforgettable songs, and the stunning set and costume design made it an instant classic. Over 40 years later, Ali, Rekha, and Bhonsle reunited in Mumbai to celebrate the release of the film’s beautifully restored 4K version in theatres.
Alongside the remastered film, Ali also launched a limited-edition coffee table book with photography stills that captured behind-the-scenes of the film’s making. “My background in advertising and painting has made me aware of the power that images hold. I thought a book would help in keeping the film’s stills zinda (alive) for a long time, along with the different layers of truth that go behind a single scene in the film,” Ali says.
To collect the stills for the book, Ali called up Neha Kamat, daughter of Vidyadhar, the film’s official photographer who captured not only the tragic beauty of Rekha but also the pre-colonial world the film evoked. The archive yielded not only the stills he sought, but also a treasure trove of memories from the shoot— like a black-and-white image of Ali by a lake, explaining a scene to Rekha and the late Farooq Shaikh. He also found rare photographs depicting scenes that never made it to the final edit preserved in the archives of the Kamat Foto Flash, which Ali calls an “institution” in itself.
This story of this institution dates back to 1945 when it was set up by Neha’s grandfather Damodar Kamat. Though he passed away long before she was born, the fascinating world of still photography in Hindi films that he built via his studio went on to shape not only her father’s life, but also hers. “Most children in India grow up wanting to be engineers or doctors. But I grew up surrounded by reels, negatives, and photographs — of film sets, muhurats, promotional stills, and action shots,” says Neha. By the time she turned 18, Neha knew she had to digitise the vast archive she had inherited to save it from decay. The collection included over five lakh negatives, capturing behind-the-scenes moments from nearly 800 films, some as early as ‘Gajre’ (1948).
Most were taken by Damodar himself, a Belgaum-born photographer who discovered his love for cameras in his teens. In the 1940s, he travelled to Kolhapur, then a thriving photography hub, to work as an office boy before moving to Bombay to work briefly at Bombay Talkies. Soon after, he founded Kamat Foto Flash in Mahalaxmi — unusual in an era dominated by freelance photographers.The studio soon rose to prominence, earning credits in landmark films from ‘Pyaasa’ (1957) to ‘Sangam’ (1964). This journey was cut short after Damodar’s sudden death in 1967, when his son was just 13.
When Vidyadhar was a little more grown up, he took over the studio, not only continuing his father’s legacy, but taking it into a new era. After the transition to colour photography, the studio began keeping two negatives for each still: a colour one for the producers, and a black-andwhite for publicity materials. Production houses like RK Films relied on the studio for its still photography. At its peak, Kamat Foto Flash had a team of over 40 photographers, capturing the moments that made a film, like brush strokes in a painting.
Today, the studio has moved out from its Mahalaxmi office into Goregaon, and much of the archive has been digitised — at the studio’s own cost, covered largely through rights sales, says 41-year-old Neha. Directors like Muzaffar Ali, pop culture researchers, film scholars, and even reality show producers regularly reach out to Neha with requests. Each is carefully searched from boxes of chronologically numbered stills, capturing stunt scenes, dance sequences. glitzy premieres and star-studded parties.
But most interestingly, the stills are also home to many untold stories of the filmy world, including how Dharmendra was replaced by Raaj Kumar in Kamal Amrohi’s musical blockbuster ‘Pakeezah’. The few scenes he shot are etched in memory, thanks to the Kamats. There are also promotional stills that Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan shot together for ‘Kayenaat’ — before Ajay was replaced by Salman Khan, and the movie became ‘Karan Arjun’.
The Kamats’ fascinating legacy has travelled beyond India. A few years ago, it featured in an exhibition in the UK curated by Rajinder Dudrah, professor of culture studies and creative industries at Birmingham City University. “We wanted to showcase the stills but also the art that is inherent in the visual imagery. Hand painters turned some of them into billboards outside single screen theatres,” says Dudrah. Neha believes the stills serve a deeper purpose, capturing the often-overlooked contributions of those behind the scenes — technicians, light boys, choreographers, and assistants. “It’s their stories I want to preserve, as much as the stars.”
