The artist has envisioned her as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Raja Ravi Verma's Saraswati and has dedicated several canvases to her various filmic avatars.

Parimoor offers a touching explanation for his choice of muse. “I have always thought that Aishwarya had the most expressive eyes, which is why after a complicated eye operation, I dedicated this suite of paintings to her,” says the 71-year-old, who is having a solo show in Mumbai after nine years.

His earlier paintings have been rather dark and surreal so one wonders what brought on the reference to Pop Art. “Since the theme is drawn from popular culture, it was appropriate to quote a pop-ish style. However, I have introduced several of my own characteristics into the apparently calendar art style,” says the Baroda-based Kashmiri.

The elements he cites as his own are the architectural approach to monuments like the Taj Mahal, Golden Temple and Baroda's Laxmi Vilas Palace, his use of lighting and interior settings that draws inspiration from the Dutch masters and his reference to the Indian Nayika paintings. “I also figured out a mathematical calculation which helped me reproduce Aishwarya's face several times. One where the distance between the nose and forehead is the same as the distance from her nose to her chin. However, I found that from her eyebrows to the top of her head is a larger distance,” observes Parimoor, who studied painting under N S Bendre.

Unfortunately, his muse is quite unaware of all this time spent calculating the proportions of her face and did not make it for the opening despite being invited. “I heard she is busy with Jodhaa Akbar, maybe when she is freer,” he adds, wistfully. What does his wife Naina Dalal, who is also a painter and printmaker, make of all his heroine worship?