Celebrated Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the ‘People's Choice' Gold Medal at the second World Sand Sculpture Championship here for his sculpture of legendary Bollywood actor Raj Kapoor.
The theme of this year's championship was ‘World cinema' and the artists were required to give their vision of famous movies from famous directors with famous actors in their sand creations.
Mr. Pattnaik's ‘Raj Kapoor, The Icon of Indo-Russian Friendship' sculpture was highly acclaimed by visitors, who voted him for the top prize.
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Artists from Iceland won the ‘Jury Choice' and ‘Sculptor Choice' prizes in the championship.
Artists from 11 countries, including India, the United States, Russia, UK, Italy and the Czech Republic, took part in the championship, which was held in Moscow for the second time.
Last year, Mr. Pattnaik won the Special Prize instituted by Moscow's Kolomenskoye State Heritage Museum for his sand replica of the Taj Mahal. He earlier won the Berlin world championship for his sand sculpture on spreading awareness about global warming.
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Mr. Pattnaik sends messages to the public through his sculptures by creating awareness campaigns. He also runs a sand art school at the Puri Beach in Orissa.