Meet Rachel Priya Benson, a woman of substance, with abundant talent, specializing in videography, photography, concert coverage, event celebrity management, etc. Her pictures have wowed celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Megastar Chiranjeevi, Miss Universe Sushmita Sen, Karthik Aryan, Actor Kamal Hassan, comedian Hasan Minaj, Guru Randhawa and Saif and Sara Ali Khan to name a few. Most recently, she covered Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s visit to Dallas promoting his blockbuster film, Animal.
The journey of people who start from scratch and achieve stardom is always inspiring. Priya falls into this category. She is an all-rounder who specializes in painting, photography, editing, and filmmaking. Thanks to her supreme talent and great body of work, she has made a name for herself in America.
Priya, as she is fondly called, runs, FlashBrush Productions, a company which was formed a decade ago. This company, which began with covering small private parties has now progressed to covering destination weddings, corporate events, large outdoor community events, fashion shows and also Indian and American celebrity concerts across the USA and India. Her team not only clicks pictures and shoots videos of the event but also edits them stylishly. The end result is that the pictures and videos document these memorable events for posterity.
Priya has broken stereotypes with her photographs. Her exceptional team of photographers specialize in different genres like portraits, maternity, newborns, real estate, food, restaurant, fashion, jewellery, product photography, concert photography, and so on. Her photographs were happily shared by celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Salim-Sulaiman, R Madhavan, and Warina Hussain. Hrithik was so impressed with one of her photographs that he uploaded it on his Instagram with the caption ‘What a nice picture of myself. Reminds me of the wonder I had as a child’.
Moreover, Priya also provides a platform for aspiring photographers. She has shot TV shows for Channel CBS TX 21 and fashion shows of Anita Dongre, Varun Bahl, Neeta Lulla, Rohit Verma, etc. She has even done live coverage and photography of the music events of Arijit Singh, the young heartthrob Anirudh Ravichander, Sonu Nigam, Ilaiyaraaja, Neha Kakkar, and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Her coverage of the star-studded Salman Khan’s Da-bangg Tour Reloaded concert was her biggest project, in which she came out of with flying colours.
In an interview with eminent journalist Faridoon Shahryar, Priya opened up on the stylish, youthful, energetic editing of her videos, a rarity in North America. She revealed, “More than a technical person, I am an artist. So, whenever I see something and put it out there, I imagine myself shooting, say an Arijit Singh or a Neha Kakar. I ask myself, ‘Am I going to be stylish or look cool?’, ‘Is my background going to be okay?’. So, these are the things that I observe. 80% of the editing happens when you are shooting. When you are shooting it right, everything else becomes easy – the way you use your colours, background and lighting – is all that matters. When all that is put together, then you need to come up with a story like shooting a highlight video of any of the concerts or events or even weddings, you literally need to tell a story. That’s the most important factor.”
She even added, “My photographers and videographers, who are on the field, are in sync with my editors. They are trained to do that.”
When asked about the origin of the name of her company, FlashBrush, Priya confessed, “The name was given by my son when he was 8 years old. Not many know that I even paint. That’s how I started my photography too. I’d shoot in landscape and paint the pictures that I clicked. Earlier, it used to be Priya Photography. But I was not okay with its name. If it’s Priya, it’s just my work. I wanted it to sound commercialized since I had a team of people working with me. I talked to my son about it. He said, ‘You paint, you also click pictures. So, FlashBrush will be ideal’. I realized that it’s a perfect name.”
Priya has diversified into handling the photography and videography of the entire celebrity tour within North America and has moved across cities with shows of Kapil Sharma, Atif Aslam, Mukesh Chhabra etc. Priya signed off by revealing that she also moved into making short films now and thus, has another feather in her cap. Talking further about her various achievements, Rachel said, “FlashBrush has been sorted into four different categories – FlashBrush Production, FlashBrush Media and FlashBrush Films and FlashBrush Weddings.”
Her life is a true example of success attained through determination, hard work and goodwill in a male-dominated industry.
