Bollywood has caught the fancy of an Egyptian diplomat in a big way. Samy Salem, chief of mission of Egyptian embassy in Delhi, has created many portraits of Bollywood actors that include Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Celina Jaitley, Akshay Kumar and others.
Samy, a self-taught artist, says, “As a diplomat I travel a lot. When I came to India, I saw that Bollywood resonated in the everyday culture of the common man in this country. So I thought that it would be interesting to draw portraits of Bollywood stars.”
Samy started by collecting photographs of actors. “I had to collect these to make the portraits as identical as possible. But I didn’t copy any photograph. I just understood the features of the faces and portrayed the stars in various moods.”
Samy adds, “In Egypt, Bollywood is a big hit. People there love the glamour, dance and music of Bollywood movies.”
Despite his hectic schedule as a diplomat, Sami makes sure to paint.
“Painting is therapeutic fort me and hence I make time to paint at least for 30 minutes every day.”
Earlier, when he was in London for a visit, Samy created portraits of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. He has also painted famous sculptures and landscapes of famous sites from across the world.
