Making music together.

(From The Times of India)

Byline: Malavika Sangghvi

(##include msid=43376741,type=11 ##)

What happens when a veteran palette pusher and an imaginative moneybags combine forces? Malavika Sangghvi examines the dynamics between MF Husain and Guru Swarup Srivastava to find out.

"His is the marriage of art and commerce," says renowned painter MF Husain, pointing to himself and Guru Swarup Srivastava, the 52-year-old self-made millionaire, who recently shot into the news when he signed an MoU for Rs 100 crore with the artist.

"For a long time, I was wondering how to increase the value of Indian paintings, which are ridiculously low, compared to the West," says India's most celebrated artist.

"It was a very well-articulated destiny," explains Srivastava, about their collaboration. We are appropriately in the business centre of a suburban five-star hotel in Mumbai. Both men have driven up in matching Mercedes saloons. But to understand what we are doing here, it's time to reverse gear.

"Around the time when Husain was in Dubai doing the Our Planet …