Virén Sahai, a distinguished artist and architect, was born in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India. After leaving school, he worked as a draughtsman in Delhi and then in Rangoon, Burma. He arrived in Britain in 1955 with nothing but a letter of introduction to an architectural practice in London. He worked during the day and finished his architectural training in the evenings. Once fully qualified, he worked for many of the leading lights of British architecture, including Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.

Moving to England opened new cultural horizons for Virén. He was deeply moved by European classical music and artists such as Henry Moore and Henri Matisse. He became an accomplished artist in diverse media, with one-man shows in Paris, London, Oxford and Cambridge. Although he initially immersed himself in abstract expressionism, he later moved to greater realism and sought to incorporate aspects of his Indian heritage into his art.