BMAD’s 2022 calendar features city influencers, rescued animals

To welcome 2022, team BMAD has released its calendar with the theme — Influencers and Survivors. Dr Josika Navukkarasu, a veterinarian at BMAD, tells DT Next, “Social media is the fastest and most efficient way to send a message across — it can be in terms of awareness or help in fund-raising. So, for our fifth edition of the calendar, we have decided to go with the theme, Influencers and Survivors. A few animal-friendly influencers, who have been affiliated with us, collaborated for the calendar shoot. They have been supporting our shelter over the years by adopting, donating and spreading the word about our work. Each influencer has posed with one survivor (animal), who has been through hardships and has overcome and is thriving at the moment. In the 2022 calendar, we have featured dogs, cats, camels, horses, buffaloes and cows from our shelter.”

In BMAD’s 2021 calendar, 25 artists from across the world contributed art pieces. Josika adds that for the 2022 calendar shoot, the team didn’t use any bright lights and props. “We did the shooting for almost two months inside the BMAD premises so that we didn’t have to displace the animals. Shantanu Krishnan was the photographer and Ranjani did the design. Before the shoot, we made sure that the animal and influencer got enough time to be comfortable with each other. We noticed that some influencers are comfortable only with certain animals. For eg, if a person is more comfortable with cats, we made him/her pose with cats from BMAD. The maximum time we took for each shoot was 30 minutes. Through this calendar, we wanted to showcase and create awareness of what we are doing at the shelter,” she adds. Online orders for calendars can be placed through BMAD’s Instagram handle, @besantmemorialanimaldispensary.