A Pirelli Calendar. India. Indian women. That is the essence of the latest edition of one of the world’s most influential fashion photography publications. Shot entirely in India and featuring an all-Indian female cast, the 2027 Pirelli Calendar was photographed by Sølve Sundsbø and Raghu Rai, with Avani Rai stepping in to complete her father’s contribution following his death in April 2026. The calendar captures the essence of Rai’s work. Widely regarded as a pioneer of photojournalism in India, he brought his distinctive vision to the first Pirelli Calendar set in the country. For the project, Rai placed images from his archive in dialogue with contemporary India. The setting remained familiar, but the treatment of time became the true star of each frame.
After Rai died in April 2026 at the age of 83, his daughter, photographer Avani Rai, took up his concept and headed to the vibrant streets of Old Delhi. “He belonged to the streets,” she shared. “So I took the idea he was working on into the streets and to the people he had photographed all his life.” More than 200 people entered the new frame, including residents, dancers, performers, artisans and Avani’s mother. However, the spotlight belongs to a remarkable group of Indian and South Asian women, including Freida Pinto, Anoushka Shankar, Padma Lakshmi, Lakshmi Menon, Bhavitha Mandava, Avantika Vandanapu, Avani Rai, Rupi Kaur and Aditi Rao Hydari.
Shankar appears in the pages of the Pirelli Calendar with her sitar, something she said would once have felt unthinkable. “If I think of how it felt for me as a teenager growing up in the UK or in the States, as a South Asian, we weren’t thought of as the beautiful people,” she said. “I would feel a little bit self-conscious about being Indian when I walked into certain rooms. But watching the last decade or so, South Asian presence in mainstream global culture has really changed that.”
Through Sundsbø’s lens, the women become powerful portraits of India’s growing presence in global culture. Yet the photographer was conscious that the project could not be approached from an outsider’s perspective alone. “It was very clear to me that I couldn’t do this project on my own,” he said. “I had no right to do it on my own.” The images travel across India, from Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur and Ajabgarh village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district to Kinari Bazaar and Yamuna Ghat in Old Delhi.
