Veteran cinematographer, biker and motorsports photographer Navroze Contractor was killed in a bike accident near Hosur yesterday (18th June) morning. It is ironic that Contractor, a crusader of safe driving, should have died in a road accident caused by an unruly biker.
Navroze had gone for a ride on his Kawasaki Ninja sports motorbike with fellow riders and was returning to Bangalore when the accident took place. Since years, he followed the same routine of riding with his friends almost every Sunday. Yesterday, they were riding back to Bangalore, and were on a service road connecting to the highway near Hosur. Three bikers came on the wrong side of the road and one of them crashed into his motorcycle, killing him on the spot.
Senior automobile historian and author Adil Jaa Darukhanawala said, “He was the most accomplished man in the country in the motorcycle scene.”
Navroze shot several films like Mani Kaul’s Duvidha, Pattabhi Rama Reddy’s Devarakadu, and Shankar Nag’s Lalach.  Contractor, who hailed from Ahmedabad, had settled down in Bangalore with his family. He was married to prominent documentary filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj. Navroze Contractor contributed greatly to the documentary scene in India and across the world, shooting several documentaries, including Ballad Of Pabu by George Luneau, Dreams Of The Dragon’s Children by Pierre Hoffmann, Are You Listening? by Martha Stewart, and Last House In Bombay by Luke Jennings. He also wrote a book, The Dreams Of The Dragon’s Children, a memoir of his filmmaking experiences in China in 1984. He was also a frequent collaborator with his wife.
A bike enthusiast who wrote regularly for bike and car magazines, he had made a documentary, Bharat Parikrama, on his circumnavigation of India on his motorcycle in 2005.