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1. What do you feel winning the Parag Illustrator Prize 2025?
It is a huge honour and a proud moment when you know your work has been acknowledged. I started Illustrating for children’s books just out of fun and never considered myself to be here giving this interview.
Now after five years of illustrating, when I look back, I see I’ve grown immensely as an illustrator, the kind of stories/book I have illustrated has been a privilege and I am enjoying. This recognition makes me want to take up illustrations more seriously and responsibly.
2. What makes you illustrate for children?
I have never considered myself as a children’s book illustrator but only an illustrator. It is important not to think who the audience is because it constrains my thoughts. The process of illustrating itself inspires me to work for children’s literature. Also, they deserve our best efforts to distract children from screens.
3. You have illustrated 5 books so far, each holds a world of its own. What has been your process for finding the visual language and your own artistic identity through these books?
Each book has been a unique challenge. Artistically, I believe every story asks for a particular style of execution and demands a particular medium. It is an instinctive choice.
Working with a favourite medium or a medium that one is comfortable with leads to a predictable result, and trying a medium outside the comfort zone might result in something beyond the imagination. It is important to experiment and struggle to get it right. Though my medium of preference has always been watercolour, I still struggle with it.
In Kumar Gandharva’s book I wanted to try many mediums to match his life. To some extent I was successful, I think. Kumar Gandharva was a revelation; until the project, I had heard only ‘ud jayega panchi akele’. Thereafter, I listened to him non-stop for two months, day and night, and the illustrations simply flowed. Seeing the print of the book was liberating. The struggles too.
Sa Re Ga Ma Pakshi is doing great. The appreciation that the book has received motivates me as an artist. And I believe it will inspire more illustrators to work on wordless stories.
4. Tell us how it was creating Sa Re Ga Ma Pakshi.
I can’t follow the lyrics of a song. So, while working most of the time I prefer listening to classical vocals or instruments, in fact any form of music and also J D Krishnamurthy lectures.
When I was illustrating Pandit Kumar Gandharv’s biographical book, and even after completion of the book I kept listening to classical music. Unaware this idea was taking a form subconsciously. At an Ektara workshop which was conducted in a tiger reserve, we were asked to pitch some ideas.
Surrounded by birds chirping, distant animal roars, howling and me taking so long to come up with an idea, a thought struck, ‘what happens when a child is late for a music class? Does it annoy guruji?’ The ideas flew out on paper from my subconscious mind. Initially, I thought of avoiding any influence of Kumar Gandharva’s body language but eventually I let it flow and glimpses of his gestures and somewhat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s is evident. The title was suggested by Sushil Shukla and was absolutely perfect.
5. What has been your journey for Bhaloo Ka Nakhoon where you are the author and the illustrator?
When I was in school, I often made my own stories. We used to bunk school for hikes. Our school was located at the foothills in Lonavala. Most of the stories were on my hikes. I don’t consider myself an author, I am a visual storyteller. I see stories and then write them.
6. Is illustrating your own stories different in approach and process than illustrating a story written by someone else?
Yes, it completely changes the approach. I read stories written by someone else multiple times. I try to omit the obvious images that come to mind first. After reading, I never start illustrating immediately. Scribbling ideas, taking a break for a couple of days, that’s how it goes on initially. And then when I come back to it, I take on fully.
For my own stories, I have seen the characters grow, I understand them, I created them through text. So it becomes easier to present them through images. However, my effort remains to create a parallel line of storytelling through the pictures that is different from the text.
7. What kind of projects and collaborations excite you most as you move deeper into the illustration world?
I’m not sure if I have any specific projects in mind. May be a satire, questioning the powerful through humour and naivety perhaps. I want to do more of wordless books which can have an equal impact on elders too. A wordless graphic novel for teens, maybe!
8. Do you have plans to work with other publishers?
Presently, I am working for two other publishers. But Ektara is like home. I love their selection of stories.
