Portuguese photographer-director Nuno Oliveira and his journey to India

Photographer-director from Portugal, Nuno Oliveira, who has worked on shows such as Vogue BFFs for Colors Infinity and Styled by Neha for FOX Life as well as photographed for many magazines and brands, shifted permanently to India two years back. As the nature of work projects changed, his stay kept getting longer, he says. “The first time I came to India was in April 2016. I have been here for almost five years. At first, I used to come here for small periods of time, like one or two months. But as I started to get into the market and create my own circle of friends here, I started to stay longer and longer. Also, when I started to direct TV shows here, the nature of these jobs demanded my presence here for longer periods at a time. About 2 years ago, I decided to move all my things from Lisbon to Mumbai and set my base here,” he says. Jyothi Venkatesh

I have to admit that when I first got here, my knowledge of India was very limited

 Nuno has always had a huge interest in India. “India has always fascinated me. One of my all-time favourite movies is called The Fall (by Tarsem Singh) and it is mostly shot in India. It was always on my bucket list to visit the amazing locations where this movie was shot. I have to admit that when I first got here, my knowledge of India was very limited. I had watched some documentaries and movies, but mostly productions done by non-Indians and therefore they offered a limited range view of the country. I had this idea that I would come here for one year and get to know everything, but I had no idea about the true magnitude of this country and its culture. I now understand it will take a lifetime to see everything I want to see.”

Ask him, which has been his most memorable projects, he says, “In terms of production value, I would say the TV shows (Vogue BFFs and Styled by Neha) were the most prominent. Those are the projects where I get to be involved very early on and participate in all aspects of pre-production, production, and post-production. On the fashion side of my work, definitely working for magazines such as Vogue, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Grazia, and Cosmopolitan, to name a few.”