Celebrities with the most notable M.F. Husain art collection

Few Indian artists have left behind a legacy as vivid, as generous, and as deeply woven into people's lives as M.F. Husain. A pioneer of Indian modernism, Husain painted with a boldness that made him impossible to ignore - vibrantly coloured narrative works executed in a modified Cubist style and expressionism, each canvas carrying a piece of the man himself.

Born in Pandharpur in 1915, Husain began his career painting cinema hoardings on the streets of Bombay for a living, long before the world came to know him as the "Picasso of India." His journey - from a struggling billboard painter to one of the most expensive Indian artists ever auctioned - is perhaps why his work found its way into so many of Bollywood's most private, most personal spaces. He painted actresses, gifted paintings to friends recovering in hospital beds, and found in Indian cinema itself a lifelong muse. Decades after his passing in 2011, his paintings still hang in the homes of the people he loved, admired, and was inspired by.

Art evokes one's best emotions, and sometimes a piece, a collection or the artist resonates so much with you that you want to keep that art all to yourself, as a possession, as a homage. Following in the footsteps of great art collectors, Bollywood celebrities too have shown an immense interest in the works of M.F. Husain for years now, building collections that are as personal as they are prized. 

1. Madhuri Dixit

There is perhaps no bond between Husain and a Bollywood star more famous than the one he shared with Madhuri Dixit. Husain openly admitted that he was captivated after watching Hum Aapke Hain Koun an astonishing number of times, and he went on to make her the central muse of an entire body of work. He created a series of paintings imagining her in various moods and guises. Several of these Madhuri-inspired canvases, including works from his Yeh Kaun Sa Mod series and his auspicious Ganesha pieces, have gone on to define her personal collection and the design language of her Mumbai home. 

2. Aditi Rao Hydari

Aditi Rao Hydari is another name whose love for Husain's work has found its way into her personal collection. Her connection to art feels less like a statement and more like something that naturally belongs in her world - alongside her fondness for Indian craft, old-world beauty and all things quietly artistic. A few Husain works have found a place in her home, bringing with them that unmistakable burst of colour and character that makes his paintings so instantly recognisable. There is something rather lovely about that - an artist whose work once filled cinema hoardings now finding a place in the private homes of those who continue to admire him, including a new generation of actors who have grown up with his legacy.

3.  Ameesha Patel

Ameesha Patel's connection to Husain's art runs deeper than most - it isn't built on fandom, but on family history. The actress owns a striking collection of his paintings, and its significance is rooted in the bond Husain shared with her grandfather, who supported the artist during his early, struggling years painting cinema posters for a living. That connection also extends to

Theorama Vedic, which houses and celebrates works connected to this artistic legacy. Long before the world recognised his genius, it was relationships like these - quiet acts of faith in a young, unproven artist - that helped Husain survive and eventually flourish. Patel's collection is, in many ways, a family heirloom as much as an art collection: a reminder that greatness is often built on the backs of people who believed early.

4. Parmeshwar Godrej

The late Parmeshwar Godrej was one of Husain's closest friends and one of his most devoted collectors. A trained artist herself, she eventually turned from painting to patronage, forming what she described as a "mutual admiration society" with Husain over the years. Her collection of his works was, by her own admission, too extensive to catalogue - she once said the works were "far too many to mention." Among the standout pieces in her collection was a mammoth canvas depicting a nude figure alongside horses, a recurring and beloved motif in Husain's practice. Godrej and Husain also collaborated beyond canvas - together, they established Cinema Ghar, a museum of art and theatre, in Hyderabad. Her Mumbai home became something of an informal gallery for his work, a space where his art lived alongside the friendships he valued most.

5. Amitabh Bachchan

Few gestures capture Husain's warmth as a person quite like the one he made for Amitabh Bachchan. During Bachchan's recovery at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, Husain personally visited and gifted him a special painting of Lord Ganesha - the God of new beginnings and the remover of obstacles, a fitting tribute for a man recuperating and looking ahead to recovery. It's the kind of act that reveals Husain beyond the myth of the eccentric, barefoot painter: a man who showed up in a hospital room to bring comfort and colour to a friend, one canvas at a time.

What strikes you most, looking across these collections, isn't just the scale of it all - the record prices, the museum wings, the Bollywood muses. It's how personal each connection was. Husain didn't just sell paintings; he built friendships, honoured mentors, comforted the sick, and immortalised the women who inspired him. Fifteen years after his passing, his art continues to move between hands that hold it not merely as an investment, but as a homage - to a man who began his career painting cinema banners on the streets of Bombay, and ended it as one of the most celebrated and collected artists India has ever produced.

Text by Mriganka Singh 

Edited by Sabrina Mathews