Imtiaz Ali

I was interested in theatre and media and came to Mumbai to get a job. I imagined that the film industry would be a white building with producers sitting in different rooms, and you could walk in and meet them, and they would interview you and select you.

The thrill of a photo-realist painter is if you get really close to the painting, it looks just like a photograph. Whereas in my case, if you get close to my paintings, they totally fall apart - so I'm about as far from a photo-realist as it gets.