Wasiq Khan

Early life and background

Khan was brought up in Delhi, his father was an engineer by profession. He graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi in 1996. During his college days, he met Samir Chanda during a shoot of Ketan Mehta's film Sardar (1993).

Career

After completing his graduation in 1996, Khan left for Mumbai with a business card of Samir Chanda. However unable to contact Chanda, he managed to get a job as a backdrop painter with art director Ratnakar Phadke at Kamalistan Studios. After a few months, he did meet Chanda, who hired him as an assistant for the production of Tamil period drama, Iruvar (1997), which was directed by Mani Ratnam and Hari-Bhari (2000) directed by Shyam Benegal. Chanda is known for his realism in films like Dil Se.. (1998), Guru (2007), Omkara (2006) and Rang De Basanti (2006).

In 1999, Chanda recommended his name to Anurag Kashyap for Last Train to Mahakali, a 1999 television short film for Star Bestsellers series on Star Plus. This became Khan's first break as an independent production designer. Next he worked, Matrubhoomi (2003). He also worked in Kashyap's directorial debut, Paanch which was made in 2003, however never got released. Subsequently, he worked with Kashyap's noir-influenced films, Black Friday (2004) set in the 1993 Bombay bombings, No Smoking (2007), Gulaal (2009), That Girl in Yellow Boots (2010), however it was his work in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), that got him recognition. Though, he didn't work on Kashyap's Dev.D (2009), Khan work collaboration with Kashyap has played a key role in establishing the distinctive visual language of Kashyap's films.

He worked in genres ranging from thrillers like Milan Luthria's Taxi No. 9211 (2006), Raj Kumar Gupta's Aamir (2008) to art films Dharm (2007) directed by Bhavna Talwar, which won the National Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. His breakthrough into mainstream Bollywood came with Salman Khan starrer Wanted (2009) directed by Prabhu Deva. This was followed another action hit Dabangg (2010) also starring Salman Khan. Since he doesn't use software, for the film he drew over 100 sketches detailing out every set in the film. Meanwhile, he also worked on romantic comedies, like Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011) and Raanjhanaa (2013). For 2010 sleeper hit Tere Bin Laden (2010), the Abbottabad city in Pakistan was recreated in Film City, Mumbai. Also in the same year, for Sanjay Dutt-starrer Lamhaa (2010), sets of Kashmir erected in Film City, Mumbai, where the film is set. For this two truckloads of chinar tree leaves were brought in from Kashmir.

Akshay Kumar-starrer Rowdy Rathore (2012) directed by Prabhu Deva was co-produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose next project Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013) for which elaborate sets were created in Mumbai, where the film was shot for 10 months.

For his style he uses work of Peruvian-born painter Boris Vallejo as reference, as he believes "It contains everything, realism, surrealism, and colours playing against each other. I never look at other movies. He has been the only inspiration since college." His upcoming projects include, Bhootnath Returns, a sequel to Bhoothnath (2008), a biopic on the political prisoner Sarabjit Singh, a Hindi remake of the Tamil film Ramanaa (2002), and 21 Topon ki Salaami.