(From top) Anjanna Kuthiala; her paintings of Shah Rukh Khan and Suchitra Sen; a woman from the Anarkali series.(Pictures by Rashbehari Das) The artist with Shah Rukh at a Mumbai exhibition opening.

It is usually the men who are allowed a muse (think MF Husain and Madhuri Dixit). But the women won’t be left out either. Anjanna Kuthiala, a painter and former beauty queen, has made Shah Rukh Khan the object of her inspiration.

The 1975 winner of a national beauty pageant has just turned 50 — she has been 49 for the past couple of years, she admits with a laugh — and has brought to Calcutta her collection of paintings on Shah Rukh Khan for the first time. Unveiled in 2005 in Mumbai by Shah Rukh himself, the canvases show the star in avatars that even his directors haven’t envisioned him in — as Mark Antony with Cleopatra, as an Arab sheikh, with a Madhubala-Meena Kumari look-alike and as Vincent Van Gogh.

Anjanna’s fascination with the actor began when she saw Asoka in 2001 and was mesmerised by his look. “Half my life went by painting women and then I saw Asoka and it changed everything,” she says. When the artist finally met Shah Rukh, “he allowed me to do a whole series on the basis of that one painting”, she says.

The first time Shah Rukh saw her paintings, Anjanna says he joked, “This doesn’t speak very highly of my masculinity you know”.

Of her 20 paintings of the Bollywood hero, one was sold, one was auctioned and two were gifted to Yash Raj and SRK. “Shah Rukh picked a painting in which three women surrounded him, he liked it the most. Of the remaining paintings, I have brought four to Calcutta,” says Anjanna. Shah Rukh was celebrated on canvas at Genesis Art Gallery till April 27 after which the show shifts to ITC The Sonar Calcutta till April 30, which is when the actor is expected to be in town for a Knight Riders match (On April 29). Also on show will be her latest series, Anarkali. “Every woman starts life as Anarkali, the legendary lover and courtesan, living life at a physical level, and then moves into a spiritual realm as Ma Kali,” explains the painter.

Anjanna has also had a tryst with films, having played a cameo in “close friend” Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3. “Madhur, who is location-hunting in France for the climax of Fashion, has offered me a small role with Priyanka Chopra in Fashion, which will start in July,” she reveals. With every second beauty queen heading towards filmdom, Anjanna doesn’t regret having gone “the road less travelled” with painting. “If I had gone into films at that time, I would have compromised on respect. I can never see myself running around trees and doing dhak-dhak things,” she laughs.

Ever since Anjanna has taken up the brush, her hands have been full, currently painting Preity Zinta for her living room and then grabbing whatever time she gets to complete her autobiography. “There’s a lot of masala in my book,” she grins.