TOI: I am color blind -- Gaurav

Actor Gaurav Khanna has grown up watching his father paint and has inherited the art as well. 

Recalling his first affair with brush, he says, "My dad is a very good painter. Therefore, I have genetically inherited this art from him. Everybody thought that I would pursue art as a profession but after MBA, my life took a U-turn and I became an actor. I have not painted at all since the last four-and-a-half years because I was acting round the clock. It's practically been a gap of 10 years and I started Painting again six months ago." The actor feels that he has graduated to better forms of painting now. He says, "Earlier it was only oil and brochette but now I paint with palette knives as well." So what inspires him? "Everything and nothing. I am not a professional but a hobbist. This is an extension of my creativity. I am a very moody painter and laidback in real life. That's the reason I took up oil because with oil you are at the liberty of finishing your painting in a day or in a lifetime. You can come back to your painting in a gap of two years," says Gaurav. 

One startling fact about Khanna is that he is colour blind and many a time, can't differ between two completely different shades. "Yes. it's true that I am colour blind." The actor hasn't yet discovered his forte as yet and believes that his ability to paint in any form of art works in his favour. He notes, "I won't take anything away from people who paint abstracts but I personally don't understand this genre though they are the biggest market churners in the painting arena. I am more comfortable with figures but I avoid faces." 

One thing that's very prominent about his paintings is the edginess of his figurative style comprised of angles with faces that have sharp jawlines. ""I like straight lines and I think it enables me to show the expressions in a better way," he says adding his unique way of working with art, "I like things unfinished, as it adds to the mystery. I believe that if you show the whole thing, the charm vanishes." 

Gaurav states that his life has always taken a U-turn every five to six years and now the karmic cycle calls for another major turn, so it shouldn't surprise his fans if he becomes a full-time painter five years down the line. "I am always attracted to something that's creative. Anything that involves creating something interests me," he says.