At 77, this Ganesh idol maker in Hyderabad most sought after

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad’s reputed artisan of Ganesh idols, 77-year-old Sunder Singh Kalakar, is busy giving final touches to hundreds of idols. While his nimble fingers shape up Ganesh idols of various sizes and shapes, his two sons assist him in great devotion. Local pandal organisers are making a beeline to him to purchase idols, mostly above 5 feet in height.  

There are more than one lakh idols in the city which are of above five feet in height, and of them, close to thousand idols are made by Sunder Kalakar.
Right now, 90 craftsmen from Calcutta and Maharashtra are working in various capacities in all his eight workshops.

According to Sunder Kalakar, earlier, there were not so many pandals or not many people used to install Ganesh idols. Most of them installed idols at homes, that too smaller ones, until mid 70s. “Then former chief ministers T. Anjaiah and Marri Chenna Reddy and a few other leaders met me and assigned me to make bigger Ganesh Idols. They promoted bigger Ganesh idols in pandals in the city and later, it became a trend and youth started showing interest.

Now you can see how big this festival is. As the trend was catching up, I became famous. Former Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, used to take Ganesh Idols from me and distribute them in Andhra Pradesh.

“We lived in abject poverty those days. My grandparents and great grandparents used to live with us. It was a big family and it was difficult to get three square meals a day. So, from my grandfather I learnt this art.

My elder brother became the best artist, who worked for temples across south India. We used to make small mud toy animals and sell them. As the Ganesh festival became big, we got a name and it brought us prosperity,” Sundar Kalakar said.

“This festival has given so much employment to the artists and other workers in other sectors who directly or indirectly are benefited,” he added.