“I had never seen Girish Karnad before, but when he came to Belgaum for an event, I sketched his caricature and gave it to him. Suddenly, he made an announcement, “Who is Bharat Jagtap?” he liked my sketch a lot. After this incident, whenever any celebrity came visiting Belgaum I would sketch caricatures of them. But not everyone had nice things to say,” quips artist Bharat Jagtap. In the city for an exhibition of more than a hundred of his caricatures at the Indian Cartoon Gallery, Jagtap hails from Belgaum and freelances as an illustrator. “Cartooning is one of my hobbies. I have been sketching caricatures for close to 22 years now.”
The Indian Cartoon Gallery has displayed some of his best cartoons of celebrities from the world of politics, cricket, film, poets and social workers. “I use different mediums to sketch. I have drawn some cartoons with a ball point pen, some with water colours, some with pen and ink and some using Photoshop.” Interesting sketches of Karnataka politicians Yeddyuruppa, Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy, S.M. Krishna, M.P. Prakash et al grace the walls of the gallery.
On a well-drawn sketch of the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram writes: “If I look like this, then I must be a very handsome person.” Legendary cartoonist R.K. Laxman has signed on his own caricature. Australian cricketers signatures — Steve Waugh, Gilchrist and Gillispe — grace their cartoons. Shatrughan Sinha's comments of gratitude are there for all to see. Clearly, Jagtap is a celebrity cartoonist. He has won awards and praise from well-known personalities for his work. “An exhibition of my cartoons was held in Goa. The response was overwhelming. About 200 people paid me to get their caricatures sketched and the Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kaamat met me in person.”
“At a glance, I know which feature is interesting to be highlighted in my sketches. It takes me no time at all to sketch a cartoon. At times, I take only five minutes to draw a caricature.” Caricaturing is just one of Jagtap's many talents. His oil paintings are beautiful too. Jagtap's next exhibition is on “Women in purdah”. Bharat Jagtap has his own website www.bharatjagtap.com.
The exhibition is on till August 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., excluding Sundays, at the Indian Cartoon Gallery, No.1 Midford House, Midford Garden, Off M.G. Road, near Big Kids Kemp. Call: 9980091428.
