Mumbai Humans: our guess would be either a reformed IPL team or Bombay’s version of the creepy Greendale Human Being mascot.

Well, it’s neither. The Humans of Mumbai is really a month-old project started up by hobbyist photographer Ravi Bohra and inspired by The Humans of New York picture series, which was described as “a photographic census of the city one street portrait at a time.” And yours could be one of them, if you write in to Ravi with a story about your life that’s interesting enough.

So far, his pictures are a mixed bag of cool Bombay moments and clichés. There’s Imitiaz, who stands proudly in his prop shop, amidst towers of ornate Victorian chairs, candelabras, old gramophones and bronze faces of Greek gods, which he rents out to movie sets. A middle-aged man in a pristine white kurta relaxing on the steps of the Banganga. And a mother who lets her child lean over the road railing so the father can give him a kiss.

Every day, Ravi, who also works with Bohra Bros, a production and distribution company with movies like Gangs Of Wasseypur and Shaitan to their credit, walks about the city with his camera (a Nikon DSLR or a small Canon compact camera) and a long list of people that he wants to be a part of this project—a lottery ticket seller, a taxi driver, a night college student, Ganesh idol makers, to name a few. “Mumbai is what it is because of its people,” he says. “This is just a portrait of the city through its many faces,” Ravi tells us.

Let's Face It

So far, he’s shot close to fifty photographs. Once he gets enough pictures — a thousand is the goal —Ravi will put together a book, which he hopes to release in about two years. For the time being, you can browse his photographs on the Humans Of Mumbai Facebook page.

Hope you make it to the focus group!

Getting there: Visit the Facebook page here; if you think you're perfect for Ravi’s project, email him on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .