For the past few weeks, especially since social media discovered that he was dating actress-singer Shruti Haasan, many have been curious about artist and doodler Santanu Hazarika. But, long before social media fame, Hazarika’s journey started with him doodling on the back bench of his class in his Guwahati hometown. Like any other artist, he had been conditioned to think he needed a more practical profession such as engineering or medicine. So, even though he was spending all his time making sketches, which he’d sell to classmates, using the money to buy more comic books (his main inspiration) he decided to head to Chennai for mechanical engineering. “That was a dark phase for me,” Hazarika tells us on a phone call.    

But, he found his way back to art again.