Meet Siddharth Sharma, the photographer behind celebrity couples Alia-Ranbir and Kiara-Sidharth’s dreamy weddings

The big fat Indian wedding is a dreamy affair. It takes several months or sometimes even years to plan everything--from the venue, décor, and music, to the outfits, choosing the makeup artist, and of course, the wedding photographer. 

In the age of social media apps like Instagram, where the lives of celebrities, influencers, and regular folks intersect, it is only obvious that new-age couples want to profess their love through their grand wedding pictures and videos. At the same time, they prefer an element of rawness that aesthetically captures them in their skin.

Not everyone can match up to this style of photography like Siddharth Sharma, Founder of House On The Clouds, a Bengaluru-based wedding photography and film company. Apart from shooting over 250 weddings since 2016, Sharma and his team have been in the public eye for documenting some of the biggest celebrity nuptials, including that of actors Alia Bhatt-Ranbir Kapoor and Kiara Advani-Sidharth Malhotra, among others. Recently, House On The Clouds also shot content creator Alanna Panday and Ivor McCray’s wedding. 

YS Life caught up with Sharma to know how he ventured into wedding photography, about the business of celebrity weddings, and everything that goes on behind the scenes. 

Edited excerpts from the interview: 

YS Life [YSL]: How did you venture into wedding photography? Was it a conscious decision?

Siddharth Sharma [SS]: I did not own a camera for the longest time. I am an engineer by profession just like every other wedding photographer these days (laughs). I worked in the IT sector in the US until 2012. The winter months get particularly lonely there, since it gets dark as early as 4 PM and there is not much to do outside. That is how I started doing conceptual photography inside my tiny room. 

In 2012, when I decided to return to India, I had a hard time getting accustomed to the IT work culture back home. I was unable to adapt to working weekends or staying in office until late hours, largely since I had spent many years working in the US. 

I wanted to take up something over the weekends that wasn’t remotely connected to work. In 2014, a friend of mine from the US, who was returning to India, reached out to me and asked me to shoot his wedding, purely because I owned a DSLR. While I shot this wedding, it still wasn’t my profession. 

YSL: How did it all pan out from here? Tell us more. 

SS: It may sound unreal, but I was someone who never enjoyed weddings. I am not very social, so weddings are really the last place I wanted to be spotted at. When I shot my friend’s wedding in 2014, it turned out to be quite fun and interesting. Trust me, it felt as if it was straight out of a movie. It was an inter-faith wedding, where we were supposed to protect the religious identities of both the bride and groom from each other’s families!

After documenting this wedding, I also shot another friend’s wedding. I would often put out images on social media, then majorly Facebook, and the response was overwhelming. It was in 2015 when I got my first paid assignment to shoot a wedding.

After this, I started receiving a lot of requests from couples who were getting married. For two years or so, I juggled IT work with wedding photography over the weekends. I set a benchmark to quit my IT career only if I earned 2X of my annual income through wedding photography. That’s what happened in 2016, a month before my wedding! 

YSL: Did you create House On The Clouds right after? Why did you choose this name? 

SS: In 2016, House On The Clouds came into being after experimenting with a few other names. It was also the time when I didn’t want to use my name for the brand, because I wanted to build a team that is equally good or better than me. 

We arrived at House On The Clouds quite by chance, and there’s really no emotional reason. For a long time, even when I was in the US, I dreamt of opening a rooftop café in Bengaluru called House On The Clouds. 

When we were trying to zero in on a neutral yet interesting name for our wedding photography and film business, House On The Clouds struck the right chord. Most brands created their names around weddings, but with my kind of photography and films, I wanted to have a modern name. I wanted people to stop for a moment and think about what it really is. That’s exactly my approach towards work.

YSL: How did Bollywood celebrity weddings happen? 

SS: The first celebrity wedding we shot was just last year when Bollywood director Luv Ranjan (of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar fame) got married to long-time girlfriend Alisha Vaid. Shortly after, we got Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor’s wedding. We have shot weddings for several people who belong to the creative field. I believe our approach is a little more editorial, and that’s why there might be an aesthetic match. 

We have already done over 250 weddings–it has taken us several years to be where we are at. As a team, our goal is for the wedding images to evoke a certain feeling. Of course, apart from the moment itself, there’s a lot that goes into capturing the shot. This is dependent on the lens you use, size of the camera, the lighting, post production, and several other factors. 

YSL: What do you take inspiration from while shooting any wedding?

SS: Frankly, Indian weddings are nothing short of chaos and madness, so you don’t have any time to think about anything during the functions. But before we head there, we do our homework to ensure we are mentally prepared. 

Weddings are an emotional affair for most people; for some, it is their biggest life dream. That’s why it is critical for us to understand their expectations and also know the people that are most involved in their lives. We also ask the couple about their profession. If they are from the creative industry, we know there’s more scope for experimentation. 

We need to get everything right, because you can’t recreate anything. If you miss it, you miss it. 

YSL: Is there additional pressure when you have to shoot a celebrity wedding?

SS: I don’t really feel the pressure, probably because I don’t get starstruck. The pressure remains the same in all weddings. But yes, in the case of celeb weddings, one has to be very particular about the confidentiality of the event to ensure no information leaks out from our side. That’s why we don’t inform our team until a day before the wedding, or sometimes it’s on the same day. 

YSL: Do celebs give you a free rein when it comes to your work, or do you have to follow a strict brief? 

SS: I believe there’s no difference between a celeb wedding and other weddings. With celeb weddings, they want everything to look as real as possible. They want nothing to look created, because they have to do this on the screen all the time!

What I particularly enjoy about shooting celebrities or anyone from the creative field is that they treat you like an artist. They understand the significance and value of your work. After every celeb wedding, we feel a little more empowered. 

YSL: There are various parts to a wedding…What do you enjoy shooting the most?

SS: Personally, I like to be around during the getting ready part, before the bride and groom leave for the ceremony. During this time, there’s so much going on; the stress levels are very high. We’ve all seen the chaos–either someone’s missing or late and so much more. As a photographer, I like that time because there’s a lot of unpredictability. 

We usually don’t get access to brides; some of them want this time for themselves. But when we do, I enjoy this part the most. 

YSL: What’s the most challenging aspect of wedding photography?

SS: Every person has different tastes and expectations. Some people want certain moments to be captured a certain way, some people want certain people to be captured a certain way, while some want themselves to be captured a certain way. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.

The biggest challenge in wedding photography is to meet your client expectations, while maintaining your artistic vision and delivering quality. 

YSL: You’ve shot several weddings and been to some of the most exotic destinations. According to you, what is the most underrated destination that deserves attention? 

SS: It has to be home. Thanks to COVID-19, we have received several opportunities to shoot weddings at home. Many couples and their families want to travel to exotic destinations like Italy, Switzerland, or Dubai, but from a photographer’s point of view, the kind of stories and emotions you can capture while shooting a wedding at home are unmatched. 

You become so involved and feel like a part of their family.