Paolo Roversi, The Smell of India, 2025

One evening in January 1989, Paolo Roversi stopped at the Malabar Hotel in Cochin, in the Kerala region. He had already made several trips to India. That evening, as he began reading Pier Paolo Pasolini’s  The Smell of India , he realized that he was staying in the very same hotel where his fellow Italian had stayed almost thirty years earlier. In 1961, Pasolini traveled to India with Alberto Moravia and Elsa Morante.  The Smell of India , which he wrote upon his return, recounts his impressions, his nocturnal wanderings, and his encounters. In this book, Pasolini expresses his wonder and his sensitive experience of a different humanity, far removed from Western perceptions.

Thirty years later, Paolo Roversi presents an India that is just as mystical and fabulous, captured in sepia tones and powdery colors, the signature of his aesthetic. The variations in light and the modeling of volumes create a dreamlike, suspended universe. Decrepit marble palaces, small shops, alleys populated by a menagerie of donkeys and sacred cows, sandy valleys shrouded in an amber veil, and above all portraits of women, men, and children in which we find the gentleness and elegance of Roversi’s gaze. Whether focused on their tasks or posing for the camera, they compose a kaleidoscopic portrait of India.

Published alongside Pasolini’s full text,  Smell of India by Roversi immerses readers in a mysterious and fantastical India.