I know cinema from a very different perspective,” shares Bharathesh GD. The Bengaluru-based artist is quite nostalgic when we remind him that his exhibition, An Index of Disobedience, opens in Mumbai in the same week as the latest Rajinikanth blockbuster. Growing up in Davanegere in central Karnataka, Bharathesh was more than familiar with the hysteria around such films. “My father used to be an artist, and later a projectionist at the Moti Theatre. Most of my childhood was spent watching films, from the projection room, or watching him create art on posters and cutouts,” he shares. The influence is particularly robust with his latest exhibition that opened at a SoBo gallery on August 14.

I just said it to I told you so and Eye Activated, Gaze Pronounced

The works almost feel like a return for the artist. Known for his inter-disciplinary practice, this is his first painting series in almost 15 years. The colours, and the medium, he uses for the series of works ‘Pain Corporation of India (2024-2025)’ are shaped by his early years in the working-class hub of Davanagere.