With her first photography exhibition, Parsis, on display at Chemould Prescott Road Gallery, things have come a full circle for award-winning screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala. &ldquo;I am a full-time screenwriter and part-time photographer, and all I needed to actually go out there and showcase my photographs was some gentle prodding by Shireen Gandhy (the gallery&rsquo;s curator). <img alt="" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/mar/Parsi.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 344px;" /> u00a0A still from Sooni Taraporevala&rsquo;s exhibition titled, Parsis The photographs on display try to show a changing city through a changing community, says Taraporevala. &ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t much about famous Parsis here. I think they have been chronicled widely. This exhibition is all about the &lsquo;ordinary&rsquo; Parsi on the street &ndash; s/he could be my neighbour, my family or the senior Parsi with the quintessential soli topi,&rdquo; she adds. Taraporevala shot these images between 1977 and 2013 across Mumbai&rsquo;s nooks and crannies. &ldquo;So much has changed in and outside the community &ndash; the photographs, for instance, trace how younger Parsis are way more stylish than we were. I have a photograph of the red-haired Ayesha Billimoria, and I can assure you we weren&rsquo;t this fashionable back then! There are many pictures of old Parsi men wearing soli topi &mdash; nowadays, that&rsquo;s as difficult as finding an Ambassador car on Mumbai&rsquo;s streets,&rdquo; the screenwriter smiles Taraporevala. The exhibition also celebrates the few things that have remained the same &ndash; Taraporevala&rsquo;s childhood home at Gowalia Tank and their neighbours, she says, haven&rsquo;t moved in decades. &ldquo;I am drawn towards Parsi seniors and children, so you&rsquo;ll notice that they feature in many of the photographs on display,&rdquo; she adds. One of the photographs features a friend who had an inter-caste marriage but a traditional Zoroastrian ceremony. Another one features a navjot ceremony of a child of mixed parentage. Though Taraporevala believes in these causes, she says she isn&rsquo;t trying to make a statement through these photographs. &ldquo;I think films are better suited to make a statement. This exhibition is more about letting people see the Parsi way of life in Mumbai, Navsari and Udvada. People in Mumbai know quite a bit about the community, but the rest of the country doesn&rsquo;t. This is more like a mini history lesson, because I haven&rsquo;t forgotten how I struggled to tell my classmates in the US about my community. They&rsquo;d never heard of Parsis or Zoroastrianism.&rdquo; Taraporevala also hopes to take the exhibition to other cities. &ldquo;I hope these pictures make for a rich visual record of a community that&rsquo;s changing so rapidly.&rdquo; <h2 class="footer_style"> When: March 7, 6.30 pm Where: Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Pointu00a0</h2>

Award-winning screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala's first photography exhibition, Parsis, captures the community's whims and quirks over three decades.

How to shoot a Parsi

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How to shoot a Parsi

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