«Meet India’s Banksy: “Graffiti is a good combination of a sign painter and typographer… I wanted to explore type, how we write, decorate and the challenges of scripts,” DaKu told»

Isha Singh
The Wall Street Journal

Image: The Hindustan Times.

«On Jan. 6, a man known as DaKu was out in the dead of night with a handful of stenciled stickers, modifying nine stop signs installed on Delhi’s streets ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

»The messages were simple: “Stop Promising,” “Stop Staring,” “Stop Thinking,” “Stop Pretending,” “Stop Raping,” “Stop Shopping.”

»DaKu claims he just wants to provoke a reaction from his audience, whether it is a man on a bicycle or a lady in a BMW.

»“I want to play with emotion,” says the 30-year-old who used to work in advertising. DaKu’s open computer reveals what else he is working on, including cutouts such as “Please Smile at Strangers” and “No Work in Progress.”

»His graffiti often spreads a socially conscious message, drawing inevitable comparisons with the elusive British street artist Banksy. DaKu is also eager to keep his real identity hidden. Not much is known about him beyond the fact he grew up in a small town in Saurashtra in west India, went to art school, worked an ad job and loves fonts.

»While DaKu’s caginess stems from the illegal nature of his work, he also shies away from being associated with just one face or identity. He doesn’t want to be known for only one kind of art.

»After picking up a spray can for the first time in 2006, he spent a year tagging buildings in Mumbai with a global group called Crew 156. He did the same in Delhi in 2008 with two other graffiti artists, Bond and Zine. He became fascinated with indigenous fonts and typography, translating into an exploration of India’s cityscapes through graffiti writing.

»“Graffiti is a good combination of a sign painter and typographer… I wanted to explore type, how we write, decorate and the challenges of scripts,” DaKu told The Wall Street Journal’s India Real Time.

«A graffiti with Daku written in Hindi in New Delhi» (WSJ).

»He says street art is different from graffiti. “It’s decorative, contextual, layered and artists aren’t afraid of giving their name. Graffiti is more underground, more rebel.”

»In 2008, he tagged his name in Devanagri script on walls in Mumbai and Delhi. “When you speak a local language, everyone understands. When you speak English, you’re filtering more than half the population,” he said.

»Over one summer night in 2011, DaKu stenciled the expletive f— on the walls of nine derelict buildings in Mumbai. He initially wanted to target then assistant commissioner of police Vasant Dhoble, and planned to write, “F— Dhoble, let’s dance.” He decided against that because he didn’t want to add to the reputation of Mr. Dhoble, who had launched something of a moral crackdown in the city.

»The artist’s subliminal current affairs commentary has continued with an LPG cylinder rocket (after he heard a man complaining that the price of gas was rising like a rocket), a blindfolded man in an Anna Hazare cap (representing protesters who didn’t know what they were protesting about), and a pattern mimicking the LVMH logo pasted across garbage bins with “da” and “ku” (in Hindi), that could also be read as “ku” “da” (rubbish.)

»He’s also recently taken to tagging his name in cities like Baroda and Ahmedabad.

»Asked if anyone removes his graffiti tags, DaKu says, “Why would anyone? Do you think anyone gives a f—?”

»Isha Singh Sawhney is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi.

»Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.»