‘The pictures showcase totally different feelings of India and the ability of religion. For somebody who could not go to the historic gathering, these footage take me there.’

IMAGE: Aamir Khan launched The Energy of Religion, Namas Bhojani and Rajesh Parikh’s e-book of pictures on the Maha Kumbh Mela. {Photograph}: Satish Bodas/Rediff

Moviestar Aamir Khan and Author Shobhaa De launched The Energy of Religion: The Maha Kumbh Mela of 2025, a e-book of breathtaking footage of the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj by Neuropsychiatrist Dr Rajesh M Parikh and Pulitzer Prize-nominated Photographer Namas Bhojani at Mumbai’s Jehangir Artwork Gallery on Tuesday night time.

The partitions of the stately gallery had been lined with giant prints of gorgeous footage from the e-book that introduced alive the Maha Kumbh, the biggest gathering identified to mankind, held in January-February this yr.

IMAGE: Aamir Khan stated the good pictures took him to the historic occasion. {Photograph}: Satish Bodas/Rediff

“The pictures showcased the totally different feelings of India and energy of religion. For somebody who could not go to the historic occasion, these footage take me there,” Aamir Khan stated.

Hearken to Aamir Khan on how the good footage transported him to the epic occasion. Video: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff

Author Shobhaa De anchored the dialog with Dr Parikh and Namas Bhojani together with her scintillating mind that introduced out fascinating nuggets of details about the exhausting work behind the e-book and the virtues of India’s spiritualism that has sure this nation for millennia.

IMAGE: Dr Rajesh Parikh, Aamir Khan, Shobhaa De and Namas Bhojani. {Photograph}: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff

Ms De spoke of her expertise on the Kumbh a few years in the past, recalling her interplay with a Naga sadhu who had renounced life as a nuclear physicist to observe his perception.

“I used to be struck by how profoundly smart and modest he was. Every time I’m confronted by the larger issues of life, I consider that man who left all of it to observe his dharma,” stated Ms De, who has attended one large and two mini Kumbh Melas.

Hear Shobhaa De on her Kumbh expertise. Video: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff

Dr Parikh and Namas Bhojani spent 30 days on the Maha Kumbh to seize the historic non secular occasion. They took a thousand odd pictures and made a remaining choice from 500 shortlisted photographs.

“He immerses himself nearly meditatively whereas taking footage,” stated Dr Parikh of the soft-spoken Bhojani whose work has appeared in The New York Instances and the Washington Put up and whose formative years was spent at an ashram in Pondicherry.

The e-book doesn’t credit score every photographer individually, however has an equal variety of pictures by them.

IMAGE: The duo spent 30 days on the Maha Kumbh documenting and photographing the biggest gathering on earth. {Photograph}: Satish Bodas/Rediff

“This e-book was potential due to Rajesh’s exhausting work. It was him who did the planning, permissions and coordination. He has all the time been so beneficiant and gracious,” says Namas whom Dr Parikh first met 40 years in the past. Namas was then a younger photographer at Bombay journal, a publication owned by the India Immediately group.

Now residents of two separate cities — Dr Parikh in Mumbai and Namas in Bengaluru — the chums captured the Maha Kumbh from their very own perspective and assembled the images collectively underneath totally different subheads within the e-book — sadhus, pilgrims, faces, fingers, river and so on.

IMAGE: Filmmaker Raju Hirani and Aamir Khan, who labored on the blockbuster Three Idiots and PK, are stated to contemplate a sequel to Three Idiots. {Photograph}: Satish Bodas/Rediff

That is Dr Parikh’s second e-book of pictures; the primary was on Kashmir, Hameen Ast. Director of medical analysis on the Jaslok Hospital and Analysis Centre in Mumbai, he has authored two award-winning books on the coronavirus and is a person of various pursuits like images, portray, writing, debating and studying new languages.

IMAGE: Dr Rajesh Parikh and Dr Firuza Parikh, arguably the nation’s finest identified IVF specialist, with Aamir Khan, Shobhaa De and Namas Bhojani. {Photograph}: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff