Pirelli Calendar 2027 set in India for first time, with Avani Rai and Sølve Sundsbø behind the lens

A first for The Cal

The 2027 Pirelli Calendar, known as "The Cal", breaks new ground by setting its shoot in India for the first time. The edition also marks the first collaboration between two photographers: Norwegian Sølve Sundsbø, who returns after the 2026 calendar, and Avani Rai, daughter of the late Magnum photographer Raghu Rai. The project was shot in May across Jaipur's Jaigarh Fort in Rajasthan and the old streets of New Delhi. Pirelli will present the finished calendar on 23 October in New Delhi.

Avani Rai's tribute to her father

Raghu Rai, who spent over sixty years documenting India, conceived the project as a tribute to his country but died in April before completing it. Pirelli and the Rai family decided to carry the work forward, with Avani Rai taking the lead. She chose to move the shoot from a studio to the streets of Old Delhi, returning to locations that defined her father's career. More than 200 people, including dancers, street artists, artisans and musicians, animate her images, which blend archival photographs with new shots. Her mother Gurmeet Rai also appears.

At first it wasn't easy, then I felt as if my father said: 'Keep going'. Even now I talk mentally with him, but I don't want to imitate him completely. What I can do is bring him into every image.

Avani Rai describes her approach as a balance between fashion and documentary. "If a jacket worth thousands of dollars is fashion, then so is the sari of a woman waiting in front of her house," she said. She credits her father with teaching her that laziness is the worst enemy of an artist and that the most important thing is human emotion.

Sundsbø's fantasy of India

Sølve Sundsbø, known for digital manipulation, took a different path. He created a series of portraits of nine Indian or Indian-origin women, drawing on his own imagined India. "I didn't make a portrait of India, too vast and complex. Rather, I offered my idea of India. A beautiful idea, nourished by encounters and imagination," he said. His images include Padma Lakshmi immersed in a pool with lotus flowers, Bhavitha Mandava in gold against the terracotta walls of Jaigarh Fort, and Anoushka Shankar under a simulated monsoon. Avani Rai herself appears in one of his shots, photographed on a boat on Aman Lake.

The nine women

The cast chosen by Sundsbø spans film, music, poetry, fashion and activism. It includes poet Rupi Kaur, actress and activist Padma Lakshmi, models Bhavitha Mandava and Lakshmi Menon, actresses Freida Pinto, Avantika Vandanapu and Aditi Rao Hydari, musician Anoushka Shankar, and Avani Rai. Padma Lakshmi, at 55, is the oldest model in the calendar. Anoushka Shankar, a British musician with eleven Grammy nominations, was the first musician of Indian origin to perform live at the ceremony. Rupi Kaur, a Canadian poet of Indian origin, has over four million Instagram followers.

Presentation and legacy

The calendar will be unveiled on 23 October in New Delhi. The backstage images, captured by Alessandro Scotti, already offer a glimpse of the contrasts the project sought to capture: a country with an average age under 30 and 40% of its population under 25, yet still shaped by ancient caste structures and gender inequality. Avani Rai said carrying forward the project is a way to stay close to her father. "Photography was his gift to me, not just as art, but as a way of seeing, and in this we found a deep and silent connection."