By John! 12 of them

If Dabboo Ratnani does a Bollywood calendar every year with 24 stars appearing in different moods and media for his lens, it’s now the turn of Subi Samuel. But unlike Dabboo, Subi’s got just one star to pose for his calendar shots — John Abraham.

The concept: Zee Muzic got together with John and Subi to come up with the collector’s edition calendar for 2007. “Unlike other clients, the channel gave me a free hand to shoot anything I wanted and that got me going instantly,” Subi tells Metro.

Every month of the calendar has John in a different pose in an exclusive setting. “I was very excited to be part of this initiative,” says the Bollywood hunk. “We had a blast shooting the calendar. Subi has done a terrific job.”

For Zee Muzic, John went well with the image of the channel. Irshwin Balwani, business head of the channel, says: “John Abraham is the hottest youth icon today. The visuals are an embodiment of what John is about — natural, rugged, adventurous and exciting.”

As Subi sums up, it’s about the five Ss — sun, sand, sea, skin and (loads of) sex appeal.

Monochromatic: Doing away with colour altogether, Subi has gone for black-and-white in all the 12 frames. “There’s no reason in particular apart from the fact that I love black-and-white as a medium,” the ace photographer, who turned film producer earlier in the year with Alag, explains.

“I have always had this strong bias towards black-and-white because they make for some very interesting pictures,” Subi adds. “For the calendar, we shot on the beaches of Goa, besides a few indoor shots, and it was interesting to capture the sun and sand in black-and-white.”

Shooting John: So, is John Abraham the perfect model? “That’s a sticky one” is how Subi tackled the question. After all, half of Bollywood is best friends with the lensman who is slated to produce four films in the new year.

But Subi has no qualms in admitting that John is definitely “one of the best” in front of the camera. “The man is a delight to shoot... John gives 100 per cent for every shot and that too from the time he was just another model. That level of commitment comes from my end also and so the end result always comes out top notch. Also, we were all old friends working for the shoot. So it was a whole lot of fun.”

Out of bounds: It’s difficult for the aam janata to lay his (and more importantly her) hands on the John calendar, once it is launched in another couple of weeks. “It will be a very limited edition release,” reveals a Zee spokesperson.

So, you have to hope that one of your friends or family members is presented a copy of the calendar and then you can beg, borrow or steal John for yourself. However, you can gape at the soft copies of the 12 John Abrahams on the actor’s personal website www.johnabraham.com.

The calendar is almost sure to be back for 2008, and while Subi is keeping it under wraps, it may not be John every time.

PRATIM D. GUPTA