Maqtha Art District

Makhta is swarming with children and pigeons, which were my first impressions, so they ended up inspiring the idea behind my mural. And, pigeon-keeping, was a Nawabi-hobby that is now making a comeback amongst the youth of Hyderabad. The colour palette and the background are influenced by the architecture and sights around me, I wanted everything to blend in together. So, in a way, this is a visual interpretation of my encounters with Makhta - open-ended, with surreal proportions and a dose of references to its rich history and colourful present. Initiating conversations and hoping to bring a close knit community, closer

Makhta is a livewire of a place, full of chaos and children. Before starting off, we were clueless and confused about what we were going to make on this gigantic wall. What we knew for sure was that we wanted to create something funny and light-hearted. A piece that will hopefully bring a smile on the faces of the people who live here. We observed some very old citizens living around there. We then then randomly decided to paint a huge old man, who goes by the name of Aataji, who has one teeth and is holding a toothbrush with one bristle, with a crowing rooster on his arm. The depiction is a usual morning sight, but in an unusual way.

Irani Chai is a famous feature in Hyderabad. The people here have been drinking it for centuries. My piece talks about the Chai's unifying quality, bringing together various classes of people under one roof to discuss and debate pertinent topics of the day

I wanted to bring everything I saw in the city onto a wall. I painted it in a way to show that the city constantly grows. Ultimately what I made was spontaneous, and it represents the chaotic flow of Hyderabad

The idea was to make a coincidence between the surroundings and the artwork, since I have always been fascinated by the merging of the abstract and the real. To have been able to do this experiment here has been wonderful. It is interesting to bring art to such a neighborhood. It makes art a truly democratic process.

I use line and colour prominently in all my street art work. I love painting characters. Initially, I used to paint full bodies, but over the time I've been only painting faces and profiles. My piece at Maqtha is a play on the eyes. Two characters with expressive eyes looks back at you

A bridge connects the people of this city with its flora and fauna. Unfortunately, the latter has gone from abundance to gradual extinction, depriving us of our nature. The co-existence though must be maintained. Through my artwork, I wanted to depict a common road and a riverside to talk about unity. The location meant that I could talk about the Hussain Sagar lake and the community path, which is used by plenty of civilians

The attraction between the flower and the eye balls are propelled by the brain. What I've depicted is entirely subjective. Someone may feel it is real, some one may think it's entirely imagination. But what is surely is, is a surrealist piece

The portraits are a part of a series of vintage illustrations that I have been recently working on. They're drawn from a collection of old family photographs from the 60s. That's why you'll spot a puzzled young boy wearing a check shirt or a young man with a pencil moustache. There's also the woman in a zig zag saree. They are all people showing off the fashion of that era. The objective was to illicit a nostalgic feeling for a bygone time, and contrast them to today - where they have great photographs but lack a bold personality. I drew it with an old, rustic look in mind, and I used bright red to bring out the contrast and contemporary look to the portraits.

As an aside, you'll also see Guns and roses, that I've used to depict the duality of the female - oscillating between tough and soft depending on the situation. My work on such themes in the past helped me execute this piece. As for the visual style, I drew inspiration from realism and Indian popular culture.