Big fan’s big gift to Sallu
MUMBAI: Ankita Joshi (27) has painted `Dabangg’ actor Salman Khan in a zero gravity flight. Ankita is the first girl in the world to paint under zero gravity conditions, and being a big fan of the actor’s, she chose Salman, to start with. Ankita plans to gift the painting to Salman Khan.
She excitedly said, “I am a huge fan of Salman Khan…he is my favourite and I loved his film Dabangg. He has a great personality. I wanted to start with him,”
She painted Salman as ‘Chulbul Pandey’ within two eight-second trajectories above Florida, USA, on March 27.
She flew in a Rockwell Commander aircraft along with a doctor, under the supervision of space agency NASA. The aircraft nosedived to create zero-gravity conditions for about four minutes, when she painted. “I was able to experience the void of gravity, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and even spiritually.
I painted series of canvases,” she said. Prior to the flight, she underwent training with an ex-NASA astronaut, Greg Claxton. Painting in the space was not easy as everything from the canvas to the crayon was floating.
“We tried to fix the canvas with rods but it did not help. I was constantly banging my head on the ceiling…I remained dizzy and sick,” she said.
Exhibition of Ankita’s zero-G paintings held at the Jehangir Art Gallery from April 21 to 27.
