Olive has not marred his art!
Ronnie Chibbar retired as a colonel in the Indian Army for more than 30 years, and a helicopter pilot with lots of talent and intelligence. His fellow officers used to call him painter. After his years in service, the colonel decided to spend the rest of his life on art.
Initially, he started holding magic shows. Chhibbar says magic came to him naturally, because he was not taught by anybody. It was all done by him by techniques he developed himself. He began to hold a lot of charity shows and thereafter he joined Shyam Benegal in making a film the famous biopic “Netaji: The Forgotten Hero” where he shot two-third of the movie, especially the scenes of wars pertaining to WW-II days, and during those days Shyam Benegal found him to be a great story-teller.
As a painter, he had done some amazing works, but quite soon, he realised that his vision and ideas are not limited to painting, and instead, he could start experimenting with an art form which was till then very little known to Indian art lovers: sand art. He said he had been first exposed to it by a fakir, something like 40 or 45 years ago. But to practice the art, he got inspired by a foreigner. He thought he could perform better with more of his imagination and perspective. What he now does is his own innovation which he has been practising for more than six years. He said performing this art always come out as a new medium and the sand cannot be reshuffled again and that is how every time he performs his art becomes an original one. He had been invited by the big companies for the launch of their cars like Nissan Volkswagon, Mustang, etc. He told News Bench: “I have served in the armed forces for 30 years. Later I wrote a coffee table book on ‘Training the Indian Army’, which was released by the then President of India RK Narayanan.” Besides my flair for dramatics, I was a magician of repute and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. After seeking premature release from the army to pursue my creative career, I worked with the world renowned film director Shyam Benegal as the military consultant for his film “Netaji – The Forgotten Hero”. This was the first film in India depicting World War II scenes in one third of the movie. I must say I was so overwhelmed when mine was the only name appeared in the film credits before Shyam Benegal’s.”
The worthy colonel continues: “Being a painter and a magician, the creative bug never leaves me and I always look for new avenues and new grounds to be broken. Today, besides performing sand art internationally, I am sharing a wealth of my knowledge and experience with youths through motivation and training workshops across the country.”
When asked what lesson he wants to give young artists, Col. Chhibbar said: “Just drawing or sketching does not make one an artist. You have to get emotionally connected to your story and character, have the vision and a clear structural form for each subject, animal or living being that you need to depict, coupled with a strong and interesting story line. The aim is to deliver an impactful message in as short a time as possible, retaining audience interest all the time. Add the element of surprise in your performance… that keeps the interest alive. Give the fish what it eats, not what you eat, and you will catch it. The same goes for the audience: give them what they want to see, not what you like. Here lies the catch. I have plenty of experience to share, with almost five years experience in sand animation. In fact, this is what I keep insisting in all my lectures.”
