Gorgeous in Goa: A new bikini bombshell calendar!

Ace photographer Subi Samuel recently shot a swimsuit calendar on the beaches of Goa. Check it out!

Indian bikini calendars are becoming a booming business in promotions. And the latest to jump on the bandwagon is lensman Subi Samuel, who shot a sizzling 2011 edition for prominent beer brand Cobra.

Shot on the beaches of Goa, the calendar features six models -- Maiza, Eva Abrahamova, Carla Dennis, Sonakshi Sajnani, Nina Marchuk and Andressa van den Eden Class -- across the 12 months.

Samuel, who was approached by Cobra, saw this as an opportunity to do something 'more than the ordinary'.

"The calendar isn't out-and-out sexy. And it isn't all about pictures of models lying around on the beaches," he says, adding that he hoped to make it more 'fashionable' and 'stylish' rather than sexy.

"We used extreme wide angle lines, made the most of the landscape and exploited the locations rather than simply focus on the body of the model," he says.

Goa, the photographer says, was the most obvious choice for a shoot of this nature.

Samuel, whose best work has been in closed studios and controlled environments, confesses that the crowds they attracted were unnerving at times.

"Despite the fact that Goa is a place where the locals are used to seeing women in bikinis, people did tend to gather around when the shoot was happening. This despite the fact that we'd scouted for places that weren't very crowded," he says.

The other challenge he faced was that of not letting the calendar come across as cheap. And so began the hunt for the right models.

Samuel points out that the key to keeping a swimsuit shot tasteful lies in selecting the model. "It is important to have a model who is comfortable with her body. We also usually prefer models who aren't voluptuous and slightly on the leaner side. When we were selecting girls for the calendar, we were looking at women with some amount of international experience."

"We looked at over 35 models whose profiles modelling agencies Toab and Purple had forwarded to us. After shooting their pictures and a few rounds of auditions, we zeroed in on the six who are featured."

He continues, "I've always hated the concept of projecting women as objects of sex. I'd made this clear right at the outset when I was discussing the shoot. So we also took a conscious decision of cutting out a lot of postures and focussed only on those that would lean more towards being fashionable."

This isn't the first time that Samuel has shot a swimsuit calendar. About four years ago, he got behind the camera to shoot one for Indiatimes.

Putting one together, he says, is no different from any other assignment. "In all honesty, while people make a lot of hoopla about a swimsuit calendar, there is really nothing much to it. As a professional it is no different from shooting a catalogue that highlights a product. You cannot approach it with the idea that you will score with one of the girls."

Speaking about the growing trend of swimsuit calendars, the photographer confesses that a lot of it has to do with the popularity of the Kingfisher Calendar. "Everyone has suddenly woken up to the fact that a calendar like this can actually run! And it seems to me that there will only be more such calendars in the future."

In the following pages, we bring you a preview of the beautiful photographs. We start off with Andressa van den Eden Class, who sets August aflame.

Eva Abrahamova, on the October page, soaks up the sun on the seafront.

July sees Nina Marchuk drape herself across a rock in a graphic print monokini.

The lovely Maiza shows off her endless gams and flowing braid in the month of January.

Here we see Nina Marchuk once again, reclining sensually in a field of gold for June.

And here is April beauty Maiza's second appearance, standing out in sexy silver against a rocky landscape.