Photographer and filmmaker Avani Rai has brought to fruition the late Raghu Rai’s vision for the Pirelli 2027 calendar, a project her father had conceptualized before his passing. The calendar, titled “India, Beyond a Single Gaze,” is set entirely in India and marks the first time the Pirelli calendar has been shot in the country. It features a diverse cast including musicians, actors, writers, and models such as Anoushka Shankar, Aditi Rao Hydari, Bhavitha Mandava, Lakshmi Menon, Freida Pinto, Padma Lakshmi, Rupi Kaur, and Avani herself.
Raghu Rai, one of India’s most revered photographers, was known for his dedication to capturing honest, intimate moments rather than crafting broad, polished narratives for consumption. His philosophy emphasized a truthful, attentive gaze, focusing on the ordinary moments and gestures that reveal a wider truth about life. Avani Rai said that her father resisted defining India through stereotypes or simplified concepts, instead viewing it as a collection of moments that demand presence and attention.
The 2027 edition of the Pirelli calendar reflects this ethos. Rather than presenting a grand narrative, the calendar adopts a theme of attention and presence, embodying Raghu Rai’s belief that extraordinary beauty exists within the everyday. Avani revisited locations significant to her father’s work, especially the streets of Old Delhi, while incorporating people from various parts of India to ensure authenticity and emotional depth in the images. The project aimed to move beyond conventional portrayals of India—often focused on spectacle, spirituality, or poverty—and offer a more nuanced and human perspective.
For Avani Rai, realizing her father’s project has been a deeply personal experience and a challenge. She noted that honoring Raghu Rai did not mean imitating his style, which would require being someone else entirely. Instead, she carried forward his values—patience, curiosity, dignity, and the ability to receive a moment—which naturally shaped the photographs as her own. This process also reshaped her understanding of legacy, seeing it not as something left at life’s end but as a daily practice of integrity and inquiry.
The collaboration between two photographers—Sølve Sundsbø and Raghu Rai, with Avani completing her father’s vision—along with the thematic emphasis on specificity and authenticity, aligns with a broader shift of the Pirelli calendar from glamour-focused imagery to storytelling rooted in cultural honesty.
Looking at the medium’s evolving role, Avani reflected on how her father’s philosophy would apply in today’s digital landscape. Despite technological changes and the proliferation of images on platforms like Instagram, Raghu Rai believed that the camera does not create the photograph—only the photographer’s awareness and attention do. His advice to “empty yourself of ideas” to see clearly remains especially relevant in a time when images abound but genuine observation may be scarcer.
Ultimately, the Pirelli 2027 calendar does not seek to make a definitive statement about India but rather to capture fleeting, open-ended moments that invite viewers to engage with the country’s complexity on their own terms. Avani Rai hopes that through this work, the legacy of her father’s attention to life continues to inspire and shape how people see the world around them.