A serene-looking Mahatma Gandhi, in a sitting posture with his eyes closed, dominates many Assembly, Parliament and public places world-over highlighting the values of the world’s largest democracy. Mr. B. Prasad and Mr. K. Prasad of Sri Saibaba Mega Silpasala near Eluru, for the past 14 years, have been giving shape to several statues and prominent among them are various postures of the Father of Nation.
“We are giving final touches to a 15-ft tall bronze statue of Gandhi for botanical gardens at Yanam. We are keen to install one at the new Assembly premises once the capital of Andhra Pradesh is decided,” says B. Prasad from Bommuluru, the workshop near Hanuman Junction. They are hopeful that the new State government will encourage the local sculptors in showcasing their creative wares.
Explaining the making of the statues, Mr. B. Prasad said that the image was first created in clay. “Later we use plaster on the mould. Then we use fibreglass and cut the entire mould into pieces. We apply the necessary dye before fixing them by using welding machines and rivets. Finally we apply necessary colour to the structure.”
Prasad-duo has sculptured a Gandhi statue which will be unveiled at the Gandhi Memorial Park at Dallas in U.S.A. on October 2. “We have sculpted the statue on the request of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) and were invited for the inaugural function.”
The talented sculptors narrowly missed an opportunity to give shape to Gandhi statue when they lost in the tender bid to the talented Padmasri awardee Ram Sutar of Ghaziabad. “He bagged the order to mould a Gandhi statue of 27 feet for Karnataka Assembly.”
The sculptors of Sai Baba Silpasala, earlier, gave shape to a 30-ft Bharata Mata statue to Yanam Government and also a 24-ft Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy standing posture at Pavuralagutta, where YSR met his death. It also moulded several Telugu Talli statues which are decorating many places in Andhra Pradesh.
Telangana Talli statueInterestingly, Sai Baba Silpasala also sculptured Telangana Talli statue, a seven-feet-tall structure adorning the prime spot at Telangana Bhavan at Hyderabad.
Asked about the most challenging assignment, the duo singled out the despatch of a Telugu Talli statue to Dallas by ship. “Seeing the 17-ft statue reach Dallas in one piece was certainly a Herculean task”.
