Varun Dhawan loved my painting : Nashik girl Kanak

It was a much unexpected fangirl moment for Nashik-based Kanak Nanda when she was approached by Lali Dhawan, interior designer and mother of Varun Dhawan to paint the gym wall at Varun’s Juhu house. “I was so excited when asked, I did not know how to react initially and when the realisation did settle in I was so excited as I’m a big Varun fan!” says Kanak. Speaking on the painting she did, Kanak says,” After Lali Dhawan called, we met and discussed the project.Varun wanted an attractive image to be painted since the gym wall is the first thing to come in sight from outside his Juhu home. He already knew what he wanted which was an inspirational quote and an attractive image.”
Despite what you must be thinking, Wall painting is a rather new career for Kanak who was a psychologist until two years ago. “I was discovered by Vinod Guruji, an art director who has worked for many Bollywood films. He asked me to paint a wall for a restaurant roughly two years ago. You would find my paintings at many restaurants in both Pune and Nashik as well as furniture which I have painted.”
Currently working as a designer, Kanak says, “My painting style is abstract with lots of light work. I add a personal touch with lighting and shading to what the client’s idea is.” The same was done for the gym wall’s painting at Varun’s house.” We took a monotonous colour pallete with shades of blue and brown. Blue was chosen as it is calming. I have recently started painting walls for people’s houses and have painted a furniture piece at Vikramaditya Motawane’s house which was a camera painted on a trunk.” Kanak has also painted Siddharth Anand’s child’s room and a wall at Jaya He GVK New Museum at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport . Rounding back to the conversation on Varun’s house, she says,” Varun loved the painting. He said it was ‘exactly what I had imagined it to be.’”
Kanak has had no training in wall painting but did paint as a hobby since her childhood days. She likes wall painting and in spite of all the climbing required to paint walls, she really enjoys the work that she does.
With inputs from Nikhil Pandit