PIRELLI CALENDAR 2027: INDIA

The 2027 Pirelli Calendar celebrates India through a dialogue between Western and Indian perspectives

Fact sheet

This year, India is the protagonist of the Pirelli Calendar: a vast country known for its beauty, diversity and complexity. For the first time in the history of The Cal™, the project will feature the work of two distinct photographers: renowned Norwegian photographer Sølve Sundsbø and the Indian master Raghu Rai. The decision to entrust the project to two different perspectives – one Western and one Indian – reflects the desire to foster an artistic dialogue between highly acclaimed creative voices.

Following Raghu Rai’s passing, his daughter Avani Rai, herself an internationally acclaimed photographer, stepped in to carry forward and realize her father’s intentions for the series.

About the creativity and the photographers

Sølve Sundsbø is a celebrated Norwegian fashion photographer, internationally recognized for his distinctive aesthetic and highly defined visual style. Raghu Rai, together with his daughter Avani, who has inherited and reinterpreted his artistic legacy, represents a perspective deeply rooted in India and capable of capturing and conveying the essence of the country from within. The resulting project creates a dialogue between different artistic approaches, interweaving colours, faces, impressions and contrasts that belong to a country as rich and multifaceted as India.

Quotes

“When we started talking about it, it was quite clear that I couldn’t do this project on my own. I had no right to do it on my own,” Sølve Sundsbø explains. “And when they said Mr Raghu Rai would be part of it, it was like, for me, he is like a photography god.” Sundsbø’s contribution focuses primarily on portraits. “I’m concentrating on portraits of people from this country,” he says, “and then I’m leaving Avani the harder job of trying to capture more of its soul.”

Avani Rai’s work develops the original concept envisioned by her father, while taking it beyond the studio and into the streets of India. “Originally, when my father was putting it together, the idea was to have his older, unpublished works as the backdrop and frame, and it was supposed to be in a studio,” Avani explains. “But when I decided to take the project forward, I felt that he belonged to the streets. So, I took the same idea he was putting together into the streets, to the people he photographed throughout his life. And I stand behind him: I frame him, I frame his work and I frame the reality that exists 30, 40 or 50 years later.”

Location

Sølve Sundsbø photographed between Jaipur’s Jaigarh Fort and Ajabgarh, in the state of Rajasthan.

Avani Rai chose to take the project into the streets of Old Delhi, using many of the locations her father had visited and photographed throughout his long career.

Casting

Sundsbø’s cast: actresses Aditi Rao Hydari and Avantika Vandanapu; actress and producer Freida Pinto; musician and composer Anoushka Shankar; poet and performer Rupi Kaur; models Lakshmi Menon and Bhavitha Mandava; author, producer, television host and culinary entrepreneur Padma Lakshmi; as well as photographer Avani Rai herself.

Avani Rai’s cast: more than 200 people, including everyday people, dancers, street artists, artisans, musicians and performers, as well as Avani’s own mother, Gurmeet Rai.