Vibrant stories of Telangana village life will welcome visitors of The World Telugu Conference . Amid the cacophony of rush hour traffic near Ravindra Bharathi, Yasala Prakash supervises the work on 25 colourful panels on the wall opposite the Assembly. The panels narrate a tale through beautiful Batik designs. Prakash reveals this is the first time that Batik art is being done a wall.
It was one of his artworks at Ravindra Bharathi which got him this opportunity. “My painting at Ravindra Bharathi depicted 12 art forms of Telangana. Sandhya garu of Art Exotica was impressed with it,” he recalls. Art Exotica, the company handling some of the art ventures across Hyderabad has given this project to Prakash.
Besides Prakash’s designs, there are also artworks by his father renowned Batik artist Yasala Balaiah. A farmer couple, women preparing for Bathukamma, shepherds and women taking bath are some of the subjects drawn on walls. The entire wall looks vibrant, cable wires hanging from trees notwithstanding. He had experimented with this kind of artwork at Shilparamam in Tirupati. “We did Batik on the wall for the first time and that has given me confidence to do this project,” he enthuses. He observes Batik in Telangana is distinct from the Batik done in other places of India because of its significant white outline. “ Indulo pagullu, ee cracks ravadam speciality ,” he shares. There is a smile on his lips when he reveals how office-goers and tourists to Birla Mandir are inviting him to their areas. “Many say coming here makes them feel at home reminding them of their village. Parents stop by to show this art and explain it to their children. Some of them appreciate and say the wall at their house has become dirty and ask me to come and paint it,” he smiles.
P Sandhya, one of the directors of Art Exotica points out it is an attempt to help everyone connect with their roots. “Since visitors from different countries will be participating in the World Telugu Conference, we wanted to present our culture and connect everyone with Telangana village life. The walls are beautified and will make people nostalgic,” she adds.
The wall at Nizam college has also been spruced up for the conference. Sandhya states the concept revolves around weddings and artist Annarapu Narender is helping her complete the project there.
She observes artists are hesitant to share their works to be done on walls as they fear disrespect.
“People don’t value art and there is a problem of even people urinating on it. We want these artworks to be respected and not desecrated,” she says and hopes GHMC will fence the wall and plant some trees so that it adds to the beauty and people will also not encroach it.”
She credits Hari Chandana, GHMC zonal commissioner (west zone) who has been at the forefront of bringing art into public spaces.
“She is very interested and has innovative ideas which we are only implementing. I have been thinking of it for many years but only now we got the opportunity.”
Hyderabad has been witnessing an art makeover at different spots. It was only a few days ago that we saw Hitec city getting beautified during Ivanka Trump’s visit. Now this beautification for the World Telugu Conference definitely gives a fillip to the art scene but one hopes this interest will sustain and authorities will maintain these beautiful creations even after the events.
