COUNTRY CANVASES

Delhi's Art Alive Gallery is hosting a solo show of 82-year-old artist Thota Vaikuntam's work-Redefining the Cultural Gaze-till Nov. 20. A documentary about his life has also been released

- Aditya Mani Jha

Q. Tell us about your early life in rural Telangana and how those experiences inform your practice

When I was a child, I would observe that almost every community living in the village, and in neighbouring ones, had their own art forms, their own styles. I was also very taken with local theatre groups, the way they told stories of our heroes like Hanuman or Bheema or Krishna. I wanted to draw these incredible characters and my journey in art started that way.