Chennai: Even as criticism and condemnation exploded all around, particularly in social media and from prominent opposition politicians slamming the ruling AIADMK for the poor resemblance of the Jayalalithaa statue in the party headquarters to the late leader, the Vijayawada-based sculptor says he is shattered by the ‘unfair’ blame heaped on him.
“We are a family of sculptors down generations and have done over 20,000 statues installed across the country. We had done more than 2,000 statues of late CM Y.S. ajasekhara Reddy and countless figurines of Ambedkar. Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi unveiled a 16-ft bronze of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 last year at Yanam. This is the first time we have fallen in the beholder’s eye for our work and that too for no fault of ours”, said Sivavaraprasad, 52.
No fault of his? Well yes, he insists. “For a bronze of this size, we would need at least 30 days but we were pushed to complete it in just 20 days so that they could install it on Jayalalithaa’s birthday (Feb 24). We were not given time to do the finishing touches, which is a vitally important part of the sculpting”, said Prasad, adding that he along with brother Kamadhenu got a 20-member team to work round-the-clock to deliver the statue on schedule.
Elaborating on his travails at the hands of the AIADMK masters who had placed the statue order and pushed for its ‘urgent’ delivery, Prasad said, “We were not allowed to properly complete the eyes and eyebrows, and colour them as we normally do for all the statues to make them look bright and real. We were told to leave the statue as plain and simple as possible so that it would not look more attractive than the MGR statue next to it. We had wanted to provide a saree border but they shot that down too”.
“But then, the statue is not all that bad as it is being made out to be by the critics. The sense of dissimilarity occurs due to the imbalance between light and shade. Besides, that place is too congested for a statue of that size; two of them actually”, Prasad argued, while explaining that he had used several photographs of Jayalalithaa, taken from multiple angles, to guide his work on her statue.
In any case, he said, he had already started work on doing another Jaya statue as replacement “because we must regain our lost face”. He was not interested in money but he must reassert his credentials as a sculptor par-excellence. “I am finishing the clay model in a couple of days. If they approve it, I will finish the new statue in about 30 days after that. I will deliver it free of cost because I must redeem my name”. According to the sculptor, the order for the statue came from a loyalist who probably wanted to donate it to the party. “I have not seen him myself. No minister contacted me ever”, said Prasad, skirting the question seeking the man's identity.
