Pursue passion that gives joy, artist tells students

Artist Vilas Nayak, one of the fastest painters, and cine actor Sri Murali enthralled the audience with their artistic skills during the valedictory of the 31st inter-university national youth festival ‘Yuva Shatha Sambrahama-2016,’ organised by the Association of Indian Universities and University of Mysore (UoM).

Nayak, known for his unique style of painting to the accompaniment of music, left the audience spellbound with his magic, quick painting, on a canvas. 

Nayak painted two works in less than 15 minutes — ‘Yakshagana’, a folk art of Dakshina Kannada, took nearly 10 minutes and the other on ‘Unity in Diversity’ took four minutes. He dedicated the painting on diversity to the soldiers, who were killed in Siachen avalanche recently and offered the painting on Yakshagana to the university. As soon as Nayak completed his works, UoM Vice-Chancellor K S Rangappa, Registrar C Basavaraju and others went up to him and expressed their appreciation for his talent.

In his valedictory address, Nayak urged the young participants to work with passion in their interested field. “Pursue your passion that would give you joy, which money cannot give. India is a country with multi-culture and these festivals are platforms to bring together all the cultures. I quit a human resource (HR) job in a multi-national company to make my passion a full-time career five years back,” he said.

Nayak, also an alumnus of the UoM, was all happy to showcase his talent in his alma mater, and said, he had won several prizes as a student of the varsity. “I had showcased my art on the same stage during Yuva Dasara, a few years ago,” he recalled. The lad, hailing from Dakshina Kannada district, has raised money to the tune of $1 million through his paintings for charity.

Sri Murali, renowned Kannada movie actor, enthralled the audience with movie dialogues and also danced to a film song. Addressing the gathering, Murali said, Indian culture has great respect for women and every man should respect women. 

“India will change only when we (Indians) change. Everyone has a role to play in life. Be a good son to parents, a good husband to wife and a good father to children,” he suggested.