Statue of PM Modi made from scrap by father-son duo from Guntur

The artwork will adorn a park in Bengaluru

Scrap artists Katuri Venkateswara Rao and Katuri Ravi with the statue of the Prime Minister, at their workshop Surya Silpasala at Tenali in Andhra Pradesh.

A statue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made entirely of scrap material, will be erected in Bengaluru city shortly.

The statue is made by artists Katuru Venkateswara Rao and his son Katuru Ravi from Tenali in Guntur district. The father-son duo began working on the 14-feet-tall statue two months ago and it is now ready for shipment and installation.

When contacted, Mr. Venkateswara Rao said that each scrap sculpture was made out of discarded automobile parts and weighs a tonne or more. Nuts and bolts made up the primary scrap material.

Metal chains, cogs, wheels, rods, nuts, bolts, sheets and other broken unusable metal pieces were also used in the art. “For Mr. Modi’s statue, we used GI wire also for a better look. His spectacles, hairstyle and beard needed material like GI wires,” he said.

Mr. Ravi said that a team of 10 members helped them with welding and other work, and it took more than 600 hours to sculpt the Prime Minister’s statue.

“Usually, statues with perfect features are not made in scrap art unlike in bronze statues. It is difficult to bring out the facial features with available scrap. Our efforts began with a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Around 75,000 nuts and bolts were used in Gandhiji’s statue. Prime Minister Modi’s is the second such statue. About two tonnes of scrap, which includes gear wheels, washers, bolts and nuts, was used to make the statue,” he explained.

Mr. Ravi, who has a master’s degree in fine arts, said that their scrap art has already made its way into Bengaluru. The artwork was installed at Car Park at Bommanahalli. A 16-feet veena was installed on a road divider in Bengaluru city. BJP corporator Mohan Raju placed the order for the statue of Mr. Modi, he said.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao said they generally visit scrap sellers in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Chennai to procure the material.

“We mostly depend on shops in Guntur as all varieties of scrap are available there. We have to sift through mountains of junk to find suitable pieces,” he said.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao, a fifth-generation sculptor in his family, said that their forefathers used to work only on temple sculptures. “My father went off-track and began making small idols/statues. It diversified further and began making bronze statues. My son introduced scrap art,” he said.

Models of the Hindustan Ambassador car, auto-rickshaws, tractors, national emblems, elephant, bison and bullock cart are some of the scrap artworks that can be seen at Surya Silpasala of the duo.