Satyen Choudhury (left) with Bollywood director Vinode Pande (hand on camera)

Dhubri, Dec. 3: He is a celebrity in Mumbai, yet almost unknown in his own state.

Art director Satyen Choudhury, whose artistic imagination has embellished television soaps such as Shaktiman, Kkusum, Heena, Kasauti Zindagi Ki and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, is set to make his presence felt in Assam with his first independent film.

Taking a ?much-needed break? in his hometown Dhubri, Choudhury said his debut directorial venture would be based on the trials and tribulations of the youth of Assam. ?I will be a happy man if my film carries a message to the younger generation of my state.?

Choudhury has penned the script himself and taken pains to make it different from the ?revenge or lost-and-found themes? that are popular in Bollywood.

The 40-year-old art director showed glimpses of his talent when he was still in school, but it was in college ? he studied at Bholanath College in Dhubri ? that people started to take notice.

His pencil sketches on the walls of the college canteen were appreciated, though his caricatures of the teachers were not.

?I was reprimanded several times for sketching inside the classroom, highlighting our lecturers? mannerisms,? Choudhury said.

One of his college classmates, Pinakpani Chakraborty, revealed that ?even our teachers privately admired his caricatures?.

After college, Choudhury went to Santiniketan for a five-year course in fine arts. But he gave it up two years later on realising that ?this is not going to fulfil my ambition?.

From Santiniketan he moved to Mumbai in 1987 for a ?more challenging? five-year commercial art course at the J.J. Institute of Applied Arts.

?The day I was admitted to JJ, the distant relative with whom I was staying left the flat as he was transferred elsewhere. I was not worried because I had applied for hostel accommodation. I reached the hostel with my luggage, only to discover that I had not been allotted a seat,? he recalled.

A serendipitous meeting with an old friend on a local train led him to a dormitory, where he ?somehow managed to sleep on the floor for months together?.

On whether Bollywood actually has a place for anybody who is talented, Choudhury said: ?Setting foot in the highly competitive world of Bollywood is not only a tough job but also fraught with uncertainty. Whatever I was destined to get, however, came to me.?

He credited his wife Debjani with inspiring him to fulfil his potential. ?She has always stood solidly behind me.?

Apart from television serials, Chakraborty has worked on Maa Tujhe Salaam and Mahesh Bhatt?s Gunaah.