Forbes India 2020 Rewind: Best photos from our photographers

SHAURYA SHARMA, STUDENT. Photographed by Sonu Joshi

We had gotten in touch with Shaurya’s mother in July, at the height of the pandemic, for a photoessay on how the pandemic had changed everything for students of all age groups. When they sent us the first photos of the location—including the washing machine packaging in his room where Shaurya prefers to read—we knew it was going to be a classic.

SONALI THAPAR, BUSINESSPERSON. Photographed by Shivani Thapar

In the early days of April when the pandemic’s arrival emptied the streets and brought work to a standstill, we decided to get on with online editions of the magazine. And the first of them featured a Thapar scion, Sonali, on the cover—photographed by her sister Shivani on an iPhone—with the question 'Can working from home become the new normal?' It has.

VUMONIC DATA LABS TEAM. Photographed by Shaikh Imtiyaz

We had a history of going to grandma’s for vacation, but the pandemic drove some there forever. The data analytics firm Vumonic Data Labs' CEO Aravind Raju (extreme left) moved with his team in March to his grandmother’s house in Thevaram village in Tamil Nadu, to work through the pandemic lockdown to stay away from the cities where Covid-19 was exploding. They follow a 7-8-9 rule...work for seven hours, sleep for eight hours and [keep] nine hours for other activities.

SAJID NADIADWALA, PRODUCER. Photographed by Mexy Xavier

Appearing in our Celebrity issue in January, Sajid Nadiadwala is arguably the most successful producer in Bollywood, with a strike rate of over 95 percent. It is a seismic shift the way 'action' has moved from actors and directors to producers in Bollywood and we know from the photo who is calling the shots.

AJAY SINGH, SPICEJET. Photographed by Amit Verma

I was waiting for Ajay Singh to arrive at the airport, our location for the shoot, and the nearly empty airport was a haunting sight. There were hardly any planes taking off or landing. When he did arrive, Ajay was easy and gave me ample of time.

DELHIVERY CORE TEAM. Photographed by Madhu Kapparath

It was late June and Delhivery’s offices in Gurugram were running on skeletal crew. It took days of coaxing for the team to gather for a photo to go with a story on the theme of pivoting. Their fear: if one of them were infected, the entire founding team would be at risk and there was much at stake. Yet…

ABHISHEK GANGULY, PUMA. Photographed by Nishant Ratnakar

The brief was to create dynamism in the frame to denote the idea of going ahead. When we got to the basketball court, it was too bright in the day to do this—a multiple exposure—so we had to wait until dark, and when it did, it was a bit like the leaving the world behind.

HARIOM SINGH, SHOP ASSISTANT. Photographed by Madhu Kapparath

In August, once bustling shopping areas like Connaught Place began to limp back to normality, cautiously, footfalls were abysmally low. Singh, 24, was awaiting customers at a retail brand outlet, which had been forced to halve his pay. It seemed as if it wasn’t just him, we were all in a freeze of sorts.

MAHIMA DATLA, BIOLOGICAL E. Photographed by Harsha Vadlamani

We had wrapped up the shoot and I was packing up my bags that were on the table in the photo, when I noticed the light falling on it. I ran to Mahima’s office and convinced her to give me three more minutes, and cleared the table for her to sit.

VINOD CHORGE, DABBAWALA. Photographed by Anjan Das

Ferrying lunch from Mumbaikars’ homes to offices every day with unmatched punctuality is what a Dabbawala does, and Vinod Chorge was stranded with no work and no income during the pandemic. This photo was taken during Unlock 2.0 at an iconic location beloved to dabbawalas, the Kabutar Khana near Dadar station, a historic junction from where trains carrying dabbas veer off in many directions.

VICKY KAUSHAL, ACTOR. Photographed by Mexy Xavier

With the success of Uri, Vicky Kaushal has firmly established what his early-days colleagues already knew about him—that he’s star material. In our Celebrity issue early January, we called him the Josh machine. Watch him leap, that enthusiasm will get to you!

STUDENTS AT MIDDLE SCHOOL BANKATHI, JHARKHAND. Photographed by Rajesh Kumar Pandey

When we first heard of loudspeakers being used to teach children while maintaining physical distance in a remote school in Jharkhand following the pandemic lockdown, we tried for days to get in touch with Pandey who reported it first. When we did, he sent us the photos promptly, for which he had to travel to the nearest town for an internet connection.

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, MUSICIAN. Photographed by Aditi Tailang

We were meeting at a hotel room at the Trident, so there wasn’t much room to maneuver. Anoushka was friendly—you could make small talk and laugh with her—but I had to be quick, I had all of fifteen minutes.

RAHUL MISHRA, DESIGNER. Photographed by Madhu Kapparath

We cleared out Rahul’s living room, as our intention was to bring attention to the tree outside the window. Then he sat down for the photo. Something was missing, so we called for some embroidered fabrics from his studio that the karigars were working on on. Rahul held one up, and the butterflies began flying up from the ground towards the tree.

RONNIE SCREWWALA, ENTREPRENEUR. Photographed by Mexy Xavier.

What drives Screwvala, a first-generation entrepreneur, every time he builds a venture from ground up is scale and value. So it was interesting to see the workspace from where Ronnie starts any business with an intent to, in his words, 'Never exit, ever.'

VARUN & GHAZAL ALAGH, MAMAEARTH. Photographed by Amit Verma.

MamaEarth makes cosmetics from natural ingredients. So when we were mulling on the visual brief, it began with a baby orange plant at a nursery. But all nurseries were shut due to the pandemic, so this became an exercise in making an interesting image with oranges, and the couple were wonderfully cooperative in creating this.

ARCHANA HARI, RESIDENT VOLUNTEER. Photographed by Mahesh Venkatasubramanian

Residents of Chennai’s Zone 13, including Archana Hari (centre) crowdfunded Rs 22 lakh for their neighbourhood’s conservancy workers who maintained a near-complete attendance despite the lockdown. Most of these workers came from slum areas, were breadwinners, and earned barely enough to make ends meet for their families. At the event where the corpus was disbursed, it was touching to see how respect for the workers dissolved barriers.

RAHUL & RUPAL GARG, INVESTMENT BANKERS. Photographed by Aalok Soni

This was my first shoot in early July, after almost 3 months following the lockdown. The story was about how work-from-home was demolishing traditional myths of gender roles. The Gargs were gracious to let an outsider enter their home as they had a toddler and I had to be very, very careful, wear a mask and not touch anything.

GOKUL NA and NIKHIL RAMASWAMY, CYNLR. Photographed by Nishant Ratnakar

The red colour is a marker in sci-fi and fictional movies and I was thinking that using the color in the space would have that effect playing on the minds of the people. To add to it, I was glad that the young co-founders were fully outfitted.

AKANSHA CHATURVEDI, EDUAURAA. Photographed by Arpit Jain

I remember Akansha saying Ranveer Singh was hired for their advertising campaign because he is enthusiastic and energetic about his work, an ethic she shares with him. I remember being struck by what a perfectionist Akansha was, fussing over little details. Oh, and she is 24.

AMAN GUPTA, BOAT . Photographed by Eric George

Aman was on vacation in Goa, and his consumer audio company’s logo is a boat so the obvious thing to do was to photograph him close to a boat, but in an interesting way. He called me over to the beach next to his hotel in Vagator and didn’t want to stray far due to Covid-19. I was only hoping that the beach would have a few boats and there were.