DIFFERENT STROKES: (From top) Salman Khan, Koel Purie, Pritish Nandy and Tisca Chopra

Guess what Salman Khan does when he is not facing the camera or chasing Chinkaras, Aishwaryas or Katrinas? He paints. And what do Isha Koppikar and Hannsikaa Motwani do in their spare time? They make candles. We don’t know what Sigmund Freud would have said about the actresses’ obsession with candles. But it’s now an open secret that Bollywood heavyweights — and a few newcomers too — are increasingly branching off into creative pursuits, which is bringing them rather a lot of moolah as well.

Recently, a painting by Salman Khan was sold for — believe it or not — Rs 1 crore. In true filmi style, Khan had refused to part with his work (portraying a mother and child) at an auction when the highest bid came to ‘only’ Rs 20 lakh. The sulking star announced that he was taking the painting home and would sell it only for the right price.

The melodramatic move paid off. A few days later a collector paid five times as much to pick up Khan’s handiwork. Khan, who is known to have a heart of gold, donates his income from art to non governmental organisations (NGOs) and to his own charitable organisation called Being Human which, interestingly, is believed to have been inspired by his ex-girlfriend Somy Ali’s social service initiative called Human Being.

It seems that Salman’s runaway success with painting has inspired his peers to pick up the brush as well. Among the wannabe artists are his ex-flame Aishwarya Rai and her husband Abhishek Bachchan who are planning to paint a canvas together to raise funds for an NGO called Khushi, which is run by Ajitabh Bachchan’s daughter Namrita. Hannsikaa Motwani too is trying her hand at painting, over and above her candle-making hobby.

But Bollywood stars are not having fun with paint alone. Saif Ali Khan strums the guitar and has even performed with the rock band Parikrama. Newcomer Tisca Chopra, who acted in Taare Zameen Par, and is Khushwant Singh’s grandniece, writes. And Koel Purie, who is starring in Farhan Akhtar’s new film Rock On, writes for travel magazines (she is India Today group boss Aroon Purie’s daughter) and is also a photography buff.

Of course, some yesteryear stars also had interesting pastimes. For instance, away from the studios, fawning directors and demanding heroines, the great Dilip Kumar loved to chase butterflies in his garden. But once he caught them, he apparently didn’t know what to do with them. So he released them and clapped his hands to applaud his selfless act, as he once told an interviewer.

Actress Meena Kumari was, by all accounts, an accomplished poet. But the story goes that she did not like to share her ghazals —which she wrote during her drinking binges — with all and sundry. She showed her love poems only to the men she loved and who loved her. Much later, actress Deepti Naval tried to follow in Meena Kumari’s footsteps. She even published a book but her career in the world of literature hasn’t quite taken off since then.

Salman Khan, the most high profile among the present crop of multi-faceted celebs, has painted as many as 30 canvases already. Reportedly, he began to paint while languishing in a Jodhpur jail for allegedly shooting a black buck. But art flows in his veins: his mother Salma is believed to be a painter as well. Khan has done an interesting series entitled Holy Men From All Religions. The actor says that seen casually, all of them look alike. It’s only details such as the rosary in the hands of a Christian priest, or the Muslim maulvi’s beard, that make them look different from one another.

Has the Rs 1 crore price tag for his painting given him a swollen head? “The truth is that I really want to paint what I see, but by the time they are done they become abstract paintings,” Khan said recently.

Film producer Pritish Nandy, yet another Bollywood notable with a passion for painting, states that his latest exhibition set Mumbai on fire. “It was held at the Tao gallery and then taken to the Jehangir. What can I say about it apart from the fact that the media loved it and wrote about it at length, the audiences that came in were huge, and collectors like Jaya Bachchan acquired some of the works for their personal collection? I would like to take the show, or what remains of it, to Calcutta but I guess it will travel to New York and London before that. Galleries there are more proactive about contemporary Indian art. They are eager to see new experiments. And I guess that’s what I am all about — experiments.”

Nandy recalls that his first exhibition two decades ago had comprised his childhood drawings. “Painting comes naturally to me. A friend, who is a gallery owner, persuaded me to showcase them and that was the beginning,” says Nandy, whose production house has made films like Kaante, Jhankaar Beats, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Chameli, Shabd and Pyar Ke Side Effects.

Clearly, many stars find these extra movie biz hobbies fulfilling. Says Saif Ali Khan, a self-confessed rock music addict, “Performing live on stage is so unlike being a movie star. There are no retakes; you have to get it right the first time. That is the biggest challenge.”

Writer Shobhaa Dé, a keen Bollywood watcher, says that if some film personalities have an artistic streak, so be it. “Creativity should never be compartmentalised. If Salman or Pritish feel like painting, it is their prerogative to do so. Artistic expression knows no boundaries. Why place celebs in a box? Have brush, will paint! I love it.”

So do we.