Hyderabad: After the celebrations of Diwali are wrapped up, Chandra Mohan, an artist from the city, starts preparing for Ganesh Chaturthi for the next year. One of the few artists who makes clay idols for Ganesh Chaturthi, Chandra Mohan, has been supplying idols to Hyderabad Goes Green for the past two years. These idols are one of the best in the city both in terms of aesthetics and being eco-friendly — a double plus!
A year or two ago, not many wanted to trade their PoP Ganesha idols, known for their vivid colours and ‘beautiful’ sculpture, for a clay one. But the trend is slowly changing.
Santosh Banapuram and Abhinav who run Hyderabad Goes Green, explain, “When we did our research, we found people didn’t want to buy clay Ganeshas mainly because they didn’t look as attractive as the coloured POP ones. So we decided to come up with beautiful and affordable sculptures using natural dyes.” All the dyes used on the idols are made from vegetables and are easily soluble in water. “For example, we used pink from beetroots, we got red from the seeds of tomatoes, etc.” adds Santosh.
After their research, the duo got in touch with artist Chandra Mohan. “We found out that he was one of the few artists who makes clay Ganeshas in the city. Since we wanted to have colourful Ganeshas, we provided him with natural dyes and he got his artists to paint them for us,” says Abhinav. There are many artists across the country who specialise in the art of making clay idols and Chandra Mohan gets most of them from across the country to work with him. “This year, we have around 30 artists from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as well.
Artists from each state have their own plus points. That helps us in making the best idols,” says Chandra. The moulds for the idols are made by Chandra immediately after Diwali and the process goes up till January. “From the last week of January to February, we start filling the moulds,” he says.
“Our idols are different because we make them using joint-technology. In this, each part of an idol’s body is made separately and is then fused together. Since artists from AP are good in filling the moulds, and artists from Bengal are good in fusing the pieces together, we use both their techniques,” he adds.
The entire process for getting the idols together takes around 6-7 months and the idols melt easily in water. “Smaller idols get done faster and only one five-foot idol can be made in one mould every day,” he adds. Currently, Santosh and Abhinav have placed an order for close to 600 idols, but they are all selling fast. “We have idols as small as 10-inches for Rs 250 and idols as big as 5-ft that cost Rs 12,000,” says Santosh.
