AMAZING Bollywood photographs, right here!

Isn't Richa Chadha looking gorgeous?

Ace photographer Vickky Idnaani has worked with Bollywood's top stars -- Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Sridevi, Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif and Vidya Balan.

He was only 19 when he started his career with M F Husain's Gaja Gamani, where he photographed the beautiful Madhuri Dixit.

Vickky tells Rediff.com's Patcy N about his magical Bollywood journey, illustrated with his amazing pictures.

Richa Chadha

Vickky first clicked pictures at his sister's wedding. He was just eight years old.

Sherlyn Chopra

Vickky wanted to study interior design and photography at Mumbai's famed J J School of Arts. But he failed the entrance exam for the former, and passed the latter.

After the one-year course, he won the third prize in photography.

Kalki Koechlin

Vickky started shooting fashion shows at the inter-collegiate level.

Students walking the ramp would want their portfolios clicked, and that became a source of pocket money.

Sridevi

After he became a photographer, he started meeting editors Bhavna Somaya, Mushtaq Sheikh and Khalid Mohammed.

Mushtaq told him his work was too basic. Bhavna asked him to shoot actors and if they were good, the pictures would be published.

Helpful as always, Khalid put Vickky onto M F Husain. The legendary painter wanted a photographer to shoot the stills for his film Gaja Gamini.

Vidya Balan

Husain wanted Madhuri's Shakuntala in Gaja Gamini to be presented differently.

The Master had created the jungles of Kerala in Mumbai's Mehboob studios.

Gautam Rajadhyaksha -- the legendary photographer -- was present to click Madhuri's pictures, but he left, saying the lighting was bad.

"I felt that if he couldn't do it, how can I?" Viccky remembers. "But I decided to hang on and see what I could do. I clicked a few pictures of Mohan Agashe. M F Husain really liked them."

It was only his second day on the sets, and he was on for the job.

Shriya Saran

Thanks to his stint with Husainsaab, Vickky got invited to 'exotic' dinners where he met folks from show business.

That changed his life.

Madhuri Dixit

"To see Madhuri's exotic and erotic posture for M F Husain, where she's making love to the mridangam was too much for me. The whole set-up was mesmerising," he recalls.

"When I started working with M F Husain, I did not talk about money. After the shoot got over, he didn't give me any! I decided to ask him, but he told me, 'You are never paid what you deserve; you are paid what you negotiate.'

"I was only 19, how could I possibly negotiate with him about money?" he asks.

Later, Husain gave Vickky the number of a businessman friend, who paid him Rs 50,000.

"I bought diamond earrings for my mother with that," he says.

Katrina Kaif

One of Vickky's earliest magazine covers shoots was with Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif.

"I met Katrina at so many coffee shops!" he says. "I would meet her for the shoot and then, after post-production, I would go to her to show the pictures. I even went with her to meet the designer. She wanted to do the cover of a magazine that her family in London could see. That's how I got the Femina cover."

Tabu

In 2004, Vickky launched a calendar with pictures from his photo shoots.

The calendar featured Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Madhuri Dixit...

Hrithik Roshan launched it.

Hema Malini

Vickky shot the cover picture for Hema Malini's autobiography, Hema Malini: Beyond The Dream Girl.

He had earlier done the covers for Rishi Kapoor and Sanjay Manjrekar's autobiographies as well, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored and Imperfect respectively.

"Rishi Kapoor is fun to shoot. He can do five shots in two hours! He knows how to be in front of a still camera," Vickky says.

Some more of Vickky's amazing photographs:

Nargis Fakhri