IF you follow actor Karan Singh Grover on Instagram, you are bound to believe that his life is one big party—either with wife Bipasha Basu, or with friends, or when he is at work playing the iconic character of Mr Bajaj on Kasautii Zindagii Kay. You will also learn that he is a fitness freak, with that amazingly muscular body. But, there is an another side to him, not talked about, that will soon make its debut. The actor has been sketching and painting for three years, and his first exhibition, Star Infinity, will be on show starting March 18 at India Fine Art Gallery in Mumbai.

When we meet him on the terrace of his Santa Cruz home to talk art, we end up talking about more. It's clear that his freewheeling nature doesn't just reflect in his art pieces, but also in his thoughts. When we ask him when he started painting, he quips, "today?" Then laughs. He has just given made the finishing touches to a piece called Aurora Borealis (also known as the Northern Lights), and says, "It's only recently that I have taken it up seriously. But while at school, I was interested in art. But the teachers wanted us to make the sunrise and the mountains in a typical way, and if I said I wanted to draw how the sunshine makes me feel, they'd say, 'who wants to know that?' So I decided to keep my stuff to myself." But on December 31, 2016, he drew something called Dream in Birth, and Basu said, "It's good. Do more."