Actor Vijay's wax model displayed at 'Sunil's wax museum', Lonavala, Maharashtra.
Credit: X/@sunilkandalloor
While the country awaits the consecration of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodha, the city will soon also be home to a wax museum akin to Madame Tussauds, Indian Express has reported.
With Ramayana as its central theme, the upcoming museum will house 100 life-sized statues of the pivotal characters of the Hindu epic.
The first phase of the museum's construction is likely to be completed till the month of April or May in the year 2024.
The museum will also have illustrations of about 30-35 scenes from the epic like Sita Swayamvar, Vanvaas, Lanka Dahan, etc.
Sunil Kandalloor, a Mumbai-based artist who specialises in wax figures, has has bagged the tender to construct the Ramayan Wax Museum, the estimated cost of which is Rs 7 crore. Sunil has started the project comprehensively on a land of 2.5 acre allotted by the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation.
Sunil said that he was the only one to apply for the museum tender, following which the government had put forward another tender. Such was his fortune that again he emerged to be the only applicant for the project.
Sunil is well known for his 170 life-sized sculptures of Narendra Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Sharad Pawar, Anna Hazare, Bal Thackeray, Rajnikant, M G Ramachandran, etc.
All these statues, which depict his hard work and creativity, can be found in Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), Thekkady (Kerala) and Lonavala (Mumbai).
Subhash, Sunil's brother, told IE, "We made Modi ji's statue in 2013, when he was still the Gujarat Chief Minister. He inaugurated it at a function in Mumbai."
Although the administrative and logistic facets of the museum are being handled by Sunil's brothers Subhash and Sujit, he remains the creative brain behind the artistic side of the museum.
Despite Kerala being their hometown, the three brothers have relocated to Ayodhya for the construction of the museum.
Sunil told the publication, "For Ayodhya we have started making moulds for the first 80 statue. Five of my workers are making moulds according to my moulds, drawings and instructions. I will do the final shaping and painting on each of them."
The first phase of the museum will be spread across 10,000 square feet, and will be dedicated to Ram Katha while the second phase will be based on Krishna Katha.
Subhash told IE that the first phase would cost Rs 5 crore out of the total Rs 7-crore budget. "Other than the five workers who are making the moulds, another 20-25 workers will be working on the other aspects of the museum," he further added.
Sunil also said that to understand the specifications for the wax statues, especially Rama, it took him a really long time going through lots of books and scriptures.
“Also, I have been in Ayodhya for the last few months. Everywhere I went, I saw pictures of Lord Rama, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman. These were also a part of my research and study,” the publication reported Sunil as saying.
He mentioned that advanced silicon, which looks exactly like human skin, helps him in creating lucid sculptures giving them a life-like look.
“I am using silicon, wax, fibreglass and other advanced materials to make these statues. There are many statues of all the characters. For example, Rama is shown walking into the forest, playing with his twins, launching a war against Ravana, etc. So, I have made many statues of Rama with different expressions,” he added.