Creative sculptor: Sunil Kandalloor

Residents and visitors to Lonavla, the salubrious township sited midway between Mumbai and Pune, are likely to come across film stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and even Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, in typical attitudes. But a fixed stare will be the inevitable response if you attempt any verbal interaction. That’s because these familiar figures are in fact life-size wax images inspired by the uncanny life-like images of world personalities cast by the French wax modeler Marie Tussaud and housed in the epon-ymous museum in Baker Street, London. Sculptor Sunil Kandalloor has established a similar smaller gallery in Lonavla to showcase the magic of mirror wax images. This, says Kandalloor, is probably the first-of-its-kind wax museum in India.Inaugurated in March, the museum is a visual documentation of celebrities including Rajiv Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Michael Jackson, Adolf Hitler and sound recordist and Oscar winner Resul Pookutty. Other wax effigies that will join them are Saddam Hussein, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi and classical singer M.S. Subbulakshmi.

Kandalloors artistic odyssey commenced a decade ago, when he chanced upon a newspaper clipping detailing the wondrous collection at Madam Tussauds. At a loose end, after his timber business was obliged to close in 1999, this fine arts diploma holder had been looking for creative openings. Deeply impressed, he decided to carve statues of the great and good in hard paraffin wax, instead of traditional wood or clay media. I began with an image of Lord Krishna, which was subsequently housed in Keralas Guruvayur temple, he recalls.

Although initially he was obliged to cast models from drawings, photographs and video footage, Kandalloor now prefers to measure up people he wishes to mould in wax. This is because it is important to get a proper three-dimensional perspective of subjects, he explains. While the eyes are of glass and chemicals, the eyebrows, hair and eyelashes are of real human hair. The exact shade of skin is replicated with the use of tempera colours. The final touch comes from the right choice of clothes and footwear. Among his recent works has been a wax creation of musician A.R. Rahman.

Although creatively satisfying, Kandalloors hobby is expensive. Each wax model costs up to Rs.1 lakh to assemble, expense which the sculptor hopes to recover by charging visitors an entry fee of Rs.50-75. The attraction for most visitors to the museum is to get their photographs taken with wax images of celebrities. I am hoping to create a statue of Amitabh Bachchan and that surely will be a big draw, says Kandalloor, who prefers not to discuss his hard childhood or educational background, explaining that art should not be linked to such details. I make wax sculptures because people want to enjoy the experience, and it may also persuade young artists to become interested in this genre. The rest is immaterial, he says.

Huned Contractor (Pune)