Not just creating records at the box offices, the film Baahubali 2 has now made an impact in the Vinayaka Chavithi festivities as well.
Every small or big idol-making workshop in the city is teaming with Ganesha idols inspired by the look of actor Prabhas, who played the main protagonist of the film.
Be it flaunting a muscle-toned body atop an elephant or sporting a dhoti and riding a herd of bulls, the elephant-headed God is donning the ‘Baahubali’ style in myriad ways and ready to make its way in to the city’s community pandals.
With the district administration enforcing a ban on the use of idols made of plaster of Paris, the idol-makers are going all out to make various avatars of Ganesha with clay and eco-friendly materials.
Besides Baahubali Ganeshas, this festival customised “photo” orders have gone up, say the idol makers. “People want their idol to stand out and be different. So they come up with photo orders where they give us a picture of the specific style and we customise the look of the idol according to it. Leading the list of themes is the Baahubali Ganeshas which has seen a huge surge in demand. Even last year we didn’t see this much craze for the theme,” said Sarakam Murty, who runs an idol-making workshop of eco-friendly clay Ganeshas near Kancharapalem Rythu Bazaar.
At his workshop, the requests for orders are still pouring in.
At Binayak and Poltu Pal’s workshop at Allipuram, Prime Minister Narendra Modi carries a Ganesha idol on his shoulder.
At another workshop, Ganesha reclines on a chair reading a book.
Not far away, Ganesha sports the six-pack abs and a T-shirt with a rose in the hands to win over the hearts of girls.
Global-warming theme
While a majority of the idol themes are inspired from popular culture, Ganesha will don the role of spreading a powerful message on global warming at Devarapalle village, 55 km from Visakhapatnam.
Standing tall at 30 feet this clay Ganesha idol sports 1,000 hands holding a globe instead of the quintessential ‘laddu’.
“Our aim is to spread the message of global warming and its alarming impact on earth. We are campaigning on Facebook and Whatsapp groups and also through YouTube. As part of the campaigns, we are requesting people to switch off power for an hour on August 29,” said Earne Rakesh, the organisers.
