Making music together

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-style:="" italic=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="36.5%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1034415.cms" alt="/photo/1034415.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">What happens when a veteran palette pusher and an imaginative moneybags combine forces? </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Malavika Sangghvi </span><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">examines the dynamics between </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">MF Husain </span><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">and </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Guru Swarup Srivastava </span><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">to find out.</span><br /><br />"His is the marriage of art and commerce," says renowned painter MF Husain, pointing to himself and Guru Swarup Srivastava, the 52-year-old self-made millionaire, who recently shot into the news when he signed an MoU for Rs 100 crore with the artist.<br /><br />"For a long time, I was wondering how to increase the value of Indian paintings, which are ridiculously low, compared to the West," says India''s most celebrated artist.<br /><br />"It was a very well-articulated destiny," explains Srivastava, about their collaboration.We are appropriately in the business centre of a suburban five-star hotel in Mumbai. Both men have driven up in matching Mercedes saloons. But to understand what we are doing here, it''s time to reverse gear.<br /><br />"Around the time when Husain was in Dubai doing the Our Planet Called Earth (OPCE) paintings, I was wondering which was the best place to invest my money," says Srivastava, who says he has a turnover of Rs 500 crore. "We looked at mutual funds, movie theatres, films, and then the topic of art came up, and I said let me give it a thought," he says, in the manner of someone narrating a fable. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">"Something I have not told anybody is that around this time, I dreamt one night that I was near a very big hall and it was raining and somebody was telling me something about Islam. So I called my Muslim friends and asked them what the dream meant and they told me it meant that a Muslim was going to come into my life," he says, a trifle naively.<br /><br />"Around this time, I heard the name Husain, and after a few days, I read in newspapers that three of Husain''s paintings had sold for Rs two crore in Dubai. I immediately decided that I would clinch this deal. I contacted Husain and told him that I would like to invest in his art in a big way. We worked out a deal where I would give him Rs 100 crore for 100 paintings," says the IIT graduate-turned-banker-turned-iron ore exporter-turned-art investor. <br /><br />"This deal is a phenomenal thing," says Husain, "It has never happened in the history of the world. Even when Picasso was sold at a high value, it was for his existing paintings. Here, I am being paid for the work I have not yet done... a kind of future derivatives, based on current value." <br /><br />And what does Srivastava plan to do with the paintings?<br /><br />"Right now, 25 of the 100 paintings are already with me, and they will be exhibited in Paris. The feedback is that they will be sold for one million dollars each. That is four times more than what I paid for them," he says, adding, "In the banking industry, there is turmoil as the banks are ready to come forward for funding. They are saying, ''don''t sell, we will give you funds against the paintings''."<br /><br />And then Srivastava goes on to draw an elaborate diagram on a piece of paper that explains a business model so involved, that I shut off... "After buying 25 paintings for Rs 25 crore, I approached an insurance company/bank in the UK for a loan..."<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal">"In the international market, the value of these paintings is Rs 80 crore. The bank agreed to give me Rs 50 crore against the paintings. We worked out a system, whereby these 25 paintings will be given out to 25 corporate houses, which pay the insurance premium directly to the bank. This will settle the outstanding loan given to me against the paintings. On the other hand, the paintings will be rotated amongst the corporate houses on a yearly basis." <br /><br />"The possession of these paintings enhances the company image. Plus, they get to display a new painting every year. The bank stands to gain as a part of the insurance premium goes towards loan repayment, while the rest of the amount is their profit. And after 10-12 years, after the loan is fully repaid, the entire premium amount is the bank’s profit. This deal was struck for the first 25 paintings out of the 100 paintings in the OPCE series. For the next 25 paintings, I’ll approach the corporate houses directly." <br /><br />This is so complicated that I only really wake up when I hear Husain saying: "I''m 90 now and am experiencing my best sexual period. Of course, physically it may not be much, but the intensity is much more than at any other time. It is the spirituality of sex. Dr Deepak Chopra saw my Kama Sutra in Paris series, which was sponsored by Pierre Cardin and he''s planning a big show because he is doing work on spirituality and eroticism. This is, after all, the Year of the Rooster!"<br /><br />But Srivastava, for whom money is sex, is having none of it and dismisses sexuality as "not necessarily the physicality – it can be mental wavelengths'' intercourse!". Then, he wants to explain the genius behind the deal of the century: "Now coming to my shrewdness: I have branded the OPCE series – these 100 paintings that I have taken from him – as a Super Brand. Now, if somebody buys outside of this series, the resale price may or may not rise. Husain''s Mother Teresa is getting more, other paintings, I don''t know... So they have to come to me; it''s Husain plus Srivastava for the OPCE series!"<br /><br />And for India''s legendary barefoot artist who began life as a painter of film hoardings on Mumbai''s streets, does the financial responsibility interfere with his creativity?<br /><br />"On the contrary, it helps. I have been going on for the last 40-50 years, trying to make art more rewarding. People always tried to criticise me for it. Even when I started making my film, they said ‘you are being distracted from your painting'', but I said ''I have that capacity''. There are some people who just want to criticise. It''s okay, if the work so far was not of substance then people would have rejected me, but I have been going for the last 40 years," he says. <br /><br />He continued, "The problem is that people think artists should not know about marketing. In fact, a genius like Stanley Kubrick would take 10 years to make a film and spend two-three years just to plan every detail of how he would release it, where to exhibit it... My detractors say, ''Oh you have lost touch with painting''. This is what I have been fighting since the last so many years. Even in the ''60s, I was criticised. They said, ''Husain as an artist is finished''. My work was removed from museums; even my close friends believed I was finished. People can''t digest success."<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal">"I expect at least a three-fold profit from the Rs 100 crore, so Rs 300 crore... There is no other vehicle that can get you this return on your investment – not gold, not diamonds – this is the only one," says Srivastava, who admits that he is enjoying his success. "I have a pair of shoes worth Rs 38,000," he says shyly, then adds with due respect, "I recently learned that Husain has a pair of shoes worth Rs five lakh."<br /><br />"They''re John Lobb shoes," says the occasional barefoot artist, explaining, "They take six months to make." <br />But the men have more in common than being well-shod. <br /><br />"It''s a marriage," says Srivastava, "I am raising the price and his value is going up, then he is increasing his price and my value is going up."<br /><br />And in very expensive shoes, they''re running all the way to the bank!</div> </div>