PUNE: Due to extended rainfall in the State, several city-based photographers have become worried as the pre-wedding shoots have been either cancelled or postponed.
“With continuous rains, we were in dilemma whether we should go for our pre-wedding shoot or cancel it. There were couple of times when we had to postpone it. We finally got it done, but faced a lot of problems while planning for the dates,” said Chinmay Kirloskar (27), a resident of Erandwane.
“Usually, the pre-wedding photoshoot season begins after the Ganesh festival. However, this year due to extended rainfall, we have suffered financial losses as we had to cancel a couple of shoots, a few after going to the spot. Some others were cancelled even before the shoot. In the case of cancellation on the spot, it is a great loss for us as we do not take any other assignment. Usually, pre-wedding shoots are done on outdoor locations but this year, I did a couple of indoor shoots because of rain. Last year, I had carried out 12 shoots in 15 days. This year, we managed to do only two,” said Anirudh Karmarkar, Karmarkar Studios, Deccan.
“A lot of people did not want an outdoor shoot due to sludge. A couple of them cancelled the shoot as they feared falling sick just before the wedding. We also faced a lot of issues as there was a possibility of damage to our equipment,” added Karmarkar.
“Due to continuous and intense rain, clients also took a long time to confirm the shoots. This impeded us in taking up new assignments. Even if they confirmed, they still cancelled the shoot due to rain and we faced the brunt,” said Prasad Nivangune, Prasad Arts, Shukrawar Peth.
“Normally every year, there are 20-25 shoots. This year there were only around 10 to 12. Out of these, a couple of them got cancelled and we had to continously postpone a few due to the rain,” said Prasad Nivangune said.
The pre-wedding shoots start from last week of September and the cost for one-day pre-wedding shoot is around Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 in the city.
Apart from the ongoing rain, photographers also attributed the drop in the pre-wedding projects on the current economic slowdown. Abhiram Pathak, another photographer, said, “Due to continuous rain, one of my shoots got postponed three times and then eventually the client lost interest. Last year, we did around 22 projects. This year, we managed to do only eight. Apart from the rain, another reason for lesser projects was the ongoing slowdown in economy as a lot of people were not ready to invest in pre-wedding shoots due to budget constraints.”
“This year, another reason for fewer projects was the ongoing slowdown in the economy as people do not have enough budget. It was one of the reasons people were not interested in pre-wedding shoots, as they feel that photography on the day of the wedding was more than enough. However, some of them were also asking for less budget pre-wedding packages,” said Nivangune.
SLOWDOWN WOES
Apart from the ongoing rain, photographers also attributed the drop in the pre-wedding projects on the current economic slowdown. The cost for one-day pre-wedding shoot is around Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 in the city.
(With Inputs from Vaibhav Thombare)
