More than a thousand words

“I came back to India as I want to be a pioneer in the cultural movement that is happening.”

Shot over five years and three continents, 30-year-old Karam K Puri’s pictures - recently shown in New Delhi in a solo exhibition, A Thousand Words - bring his world perspective to the fore. Vibrant colours, poignant portraits and a sense of another era captured on camera, are what Karam’s pictures - most shot on his first camera, a Canon Rebel 35mm - are all about.

From the photograph of an African sunset or the bright pink turban of a camel herder in Pushkar, the colours hit you first. Karam is quick to point, “Mind you, no photoshop there.” The love of colours reflects in his personal choice as well: Karam wears a pink, “custom-made, not-off-the-racks khadi shirt”, Hawaiian slippers and a belt of shells. Isn’t pink (and those shells) supposed to be meterosexual? Karam scoffs at the term and says, “Apparently, I was meterosexual even before the term was coined!”

For those asking, ‘Who is Karam K Puri’: A former investment banker, an actor at heart and by profession (method school with a number of NY Broadway productions under his belt), a photographer for hobby and a DJ for fun, Karam came back to India last year, for good. Since then he has had an exhibition of his pictures, started the Actor’s Project with theatre personality Dan Husain and has acted in a soon-to-be-released independent film (Guroor). However, while he enjoys dabbling with cameras and spinning music, acting is his first love. And for that love, he quit his paying-million-pounds-a-month-Wall-Street- investment banker’s job and joined acting school instead. Were his parents cool with the decision? “Initially, I did as Dad said: He suggested that while I could pursuit acting, it was a good idea to have a formal education so there would be something to fall back. So I completed my education and got back to what I really wanted to do.”

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But after Broadway, why India, that too at a time when everyone seems to be looking for international acclaim? “That’s because this is a transition period for us, where we are growing economically and politically at a global level. Yet if you see any country in transition, an eco-politico growth often begins with a cultural movement. Just like ours. As for ‘international recognition’, I have seen white girls wearing kurtis (they call them tunics) with flat slippers (our juttis), eating our food, watching our movies. Food, fashion, movies… you name it and there seems to be a steady Indian, cultural take over.”

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And yet, people talk about how the Indian youth are being influenced by the West? Karam dismisses any such talk and says, “That’s the beauty of India. Every time anyone has tried to overpower or overwhelm us, we have taken that/them in, integrated, assimilated and come up with our own version of things. Two centuries ago, the British came with guns and canons, before them we had the Huns, Ghenghiz Khan and many more. We took them all in, adopted, adapted. Now, you can say it’s the capitalistic invasion, minus the guns. It is economic domination by the most powerful nation in the world, you like it, or not. And we will adopt, and adapt and come out the winners anyway. So I came back to India - to answer your earlier question - as I want to be a pioneer of this cultural movement and not join it when it’s reached it’s pinnacle,” says Karam.

And the pinnacle? So what is the pinnacle? “That, is completely up to us,” he says.

On SLR versus digital camera: “The beauty of shooting on film is the anticipation. In today’s world of instant gratification, the digital camera works. Personally, I would prefer shooting on film.”

On learning things through manuals: “I like reading the user manuals for everything, I learnt DJ-ing like that too. I even read car user manuals.”

On learning photography through manuals: “As far as photography is concerned, it is 80 per cent eye and 20 per cent technical knowledge, but you need that technical knowledge. If you are serious about pursuing something, you need to study it. Take a course, join a school.”

On being called ‘Purisahab’ in the DJ circles: “A former girlfriend who opened my hotmail account for me, called me Purisahab, and that name stuck.”

On being a jack of all and a master of…: “If I can be a jack of all, do a lot of things and earn some money, where’s the harm?”

On the roles he would do: ”I would do anything as long as it’s meaty. Ask me to play a homosexual. I will do it if it’s meaty. The action hero? For sure, but then there are the exact same parameters: a good script and a meaty role. But yes, I would do that odd-ad to keep the money coming in.”

On selling himself as an actor: “As an actor, your body is your investment. I will sell myself for good work, but not for anything else. And that I think is the problem with Bollywood: the lines between selling yourself versus selling you, the actor, blur. When you cast an actor and he plays himself, then he is a commodity.”

On acting in a Bollywood movie: “Of course yes! I want to do that one Bollywood film, because I want to be a God in Bihar for a week.

Karam’s thousand words