R. K. Laxman Sketch of Bollywood Stars

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Laxman or popularly known as R.K.Laxman (24 October 1921 – 26 January 2015) was a cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He was best known for his creation The Common Man and for his daily cartoon strip, “You Said It“ in The Times of India, which started in 1951.

Laxman started his career as a part-time cartoonist, working mostly for local newspapers and magazines. While a college student, he illustrated his elder brother R. K. Narayan’s stories in The Hindu. His first full-time job was as a political cartoonist for the “The Free Press Journal”

in Mumbai. Later, he joined The Times of India, and became famous for The Common Man character.

Laxman’s love for cartoons and sketches took shape when he was just as a child. He used to be attracted towards illustrations in different magazines even before he could begin to read.

“I drew objects that caught my eye outside the window of my room – the dry twigs, leaves and lizard-like creatures crawling about, the servant chopping firewood and, of course, and number of crows in various postures on the rooftops of the buildings opposite,” he wrote in his autobiography, The Tunnel of Time.

Laxman sketched 40 icons of Hindi cinema in his series titled ‘The Stars I Never Met”, which were originally drawn for Filmfare magazine. A few of those illustrations have now been released by the National Film Archives of India. Here is bringing back the memory of R.K. Laxman with these beautiful sketches that he drew in 1952.

Sketches Courtesy: National film Archive of India’s