His tributes come in the form of caricatures

The project was assigned to Gujarat-based Thaker by Bharatiya Jnanpith a few years ago

Jnanpith award winner Girish Karnad with cartoonist Nirmish Thaker and thelatter’s caricature of him. —File photo: Bhagya Prakash

Everyone has seen pictures of Jnanpith award winners. But in a few days, you can see their caricatures as well, with Ahmedabad-based cartoonist and caricature specialist Nirmish Thaker set to introduce his work on 56 famous personalities at a special exhibition by the Indian Institute of Cartoonists in Bengaluru.

The exhibition, which will be held from September 3 to 17 at the Indian Cartoon Gallery here, will include eight caricatures of award winners from Karnataka: K.V. Puttappa, D.R. Bendre, K. Shivaram Karanth, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, V.K. Gokak, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Girish Karnad, and Chandrashekar Kambar, who will be inaugurating the show.

“From the first awardee, Govind Shankar Kurup who bagged it in 1965, to the latest, Raghuvir Chowdary of Gujarat, I have drawn them all. Playwright Girish Karnad particularly appreciated the caricature on him,” said Mr. Thaker.

Touted to be a rare compilation of heritage value, the caricature project was assigned to Mr. Thaker by Bharatiya Jnanpith a few years ago, after which they were published as a set in a special issue in its literary magazine, ‘Naya Jnanodaya’

, last year.

“It was a privilege for me to portray India’s biggest literary awardees with my own hands,” Mr. Thaker told The Hindu from Ahmedabad.

His unusual and voluminous repertoire of caricatures includes interesting categorisations such as classical music artistes, theatre personalities, Hollywood and Bollywood actors, western and Indian writers, Indian sportspersons, space scientists and Nobel Prize winners. “Such wide classifications helped me get into the Limca Book of Records nine times, with five records set in 2016,” he said. With 4,500 caricatures in his kitty, Mr. Thaker’s collection is soon expected to be part of the world record books, according to V.G. Narendra, managing trustee, Indian Institute of Cartoonists.

But gratification comes when famous personalities recognise his “haath ka jaadu” (magic of his hands), with the list including celebrated cartoonist R.K. Laxman and actor Amitabh Bachchan.

“I have a separate book of caricatures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has been a big draw in Gujarat,” he said.