Wall Art India 2026: Khatra brings an urban landscape to life on a wall in Hyderabad

Artist Khatra brings an urban landscape to life on a wall in Hyderabad as part of Wall Art India 2026. Alliance Française in India, along with the Embassy of France and the Institut Français, is organising the fifth edition of its art journey. I

‘Khatra’ translates to danger, but for mural artist Khatra, aka Siddhart Gohli, it signals edge rather than threat. The name mirrors his artistic instinct: bold, disruptive and hard to ignore.

Currently in Hyderabad for the Wall Art India initiative, he is bringing a slice of urban energy to a wall at Alliance Française Hyderabad. The visit is also a homecoming of sorts. He is eager to return to the Maktha Art District, where he painted back in 2016. “I was part of the St+art Foundation then,” he recalls. “I painted an old man with one tooth, holding a toothbrush with a single bristle.”

Mural art by artist Khatra | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In Khatra’s hands, typography comes alive. He bends letterforms into graffiti, abstraction and the raw textures of the street, blurring the line between text and image.

A Fine Arts graduate from Vadodara, he first encountered large-scale street art at the inaugural St+art Festival in Delhi in 2015, then as a design student. Assisting international artists left a mark. “It was the first time I saw this form up close,” he says. “When I went back to Vadodara, I started painting murals of my own.” He later joined the St+art Foundation as a graphic designer and now collaborates with them on a project basis.

His practice sits at the intersection of design and art, allowing him to channel his grounding in typography into abstract compositions. When he teams up with a close friend, also a street artist, the work moves from abstraction to more figurative murals.