Pre-wedding shoot · South Mumbai
Not every pre-wedding shoot needs a flight to the hills or a beach. For Saket and Simran, we stayed in the city and spent the day in South Mumbai, where the stone buildings are more than a hundred years old and the harbour is awake before most of Mumbai has had its first chai.
We began at the Gateway of India while the haze was still sitting on the water, crossed over to the Taj Mahal Palace, walked into the lanes of Fort, and finished under the trees as the light turned gold.
Simran wore a striped saree in just about every colour, with an embroidered sleeveless blouse, a maang tikka and a red flower tucked into her bun. Saket wore a deep maroon kurta with a rust-orange embroidered dupatta over one shoulder. Against grey stone and a pale morning sky, those colours did half our work for us.
Here is how the day went, one spot at a time.
Morning haze at the Gateway of India
The Gateway fills up fast. By mid-morning there are tourists, ferry queues for Elephanta and street photographers calling out prices. Early on, the promenade along the sea wall is quieter, and the haze turns the harbour behind you soft and silver.
We kept it simple. A cup of chai on the wall. The two of them leaning on the parapet, talking, mostly ignoring us, which is exactly what we want. Our favourite frame from this stretch wasn’t planned at all: two seagulls flew across just as they kissed.
The Taj Mahal Palace, right across the road
The Taj Mahal Palace opened in 1903, about twenty years before the Gateway was finished, so the hotel was there first. We shot it wide on purpose: red domes, the long stone facade, and two small figures in maroon and stripes at the bottom of the frame. Sometimes the building gets to be the main character.
The Institute of Science, Fort
A short walk away, at 15 Madame Cama Road, is the Institute of Science. It was designed by George Wittet, the same architect behind the Gateway, but the mood is completely different: tall arched doors, worn stone steps and plaques in English and Marathi.
The steps gave us room to play. Simran sat in her saree while Saket walked past behind her in a blur of maroon. Then he took her hand and led her down the steps.
Not every frame needs a landmark, either. One of our favourites from the day has a stack of concrete pipes and a small yellow site vehicle in it, with Saket and Simran standing in the tree shadows on an old stone wall. Mumbai is always being built somewhere, so we stopped fighting it and put it in the picture.
Golden light under the trees
We ended on a tree-lined street with the sun low behind the leaves. By this point of a shoot, nobody is posing much. They walked, they talked, and we stayed far enough back to let them forget about us for a while.
Planning your own pre-wedding shoot in Mumbai?
Tell us your date and the places that mean something to you two, and we’ll plan a route around them. Get in touch
See every photo from the shoot in Saket & Simran’s full gallery.
More stories: Rohan & Nikita’s pre-wedding shoot in London · Mohit & Simran at The President, Mumbai
