Giving life to political portraits

HYDERABAD: Artist Barigela Srinivas gets busy every time a political leader celebrates his/her birthday. There are WhatsApp messages to and fro with their party members or their fans asking Srinivas to draw a sketch for hoardings and posters. “Despite the advent of high-end cameras with fancy filters, a life-like portrait is often the ultimate homage to a leader. Perhaps that is the reason why so many approach me for portraits of leaders, actors etc,” he says. Srinivas who hails from Kondapuram village in Nalgonda started his political art career in 2002 in a small hole-in-the-wall shop in LB Nagar.

Rajasthani artists were summoned when Hyderabadis wanted paintings or murals in temples or pandals. Now, I have learned it and I am the only artist in the twin Telugu states who can create these multi-colour authentic designs, says the artist who is now on a break in his hometown in Nalgonda. “Previously, it was a pen and paper project and I would hand-deliver it to the customer. Now, they send me a pic on WhatsApp and I take a day to recreate it on my computer.

I just use the screen as the canvas and mouse as my brush and sketch it. I send it via email and payment is done online. I am happy that people still love the life-life quality in the art which can never be replicated by cameras.” This Osmania University post graduate in public administration charges anything from `2,500 to `4,000 for each work. This 38-year-old tech-savvy artist uses social media to share his ideas and that is also the means to get new professional projects. “Artists should never relax because they don’t have a project. They must always hold a mirror to the current social issues and be in circulation.

I have painted extensively during Covid-19. It not only keeps me active but keeps on top of people’s minds when it comes to portraits,” he adds. Srinivas is proud that his sketches on child marriages, foeticide, hunger, poverty have gone viral. “My work titled Aadukoney vayasu lo adukkeney akali’ about a girl child who is hired as child labour to sell balloons in Hyderabad got hundreds of shares. ‘Gutka tagaku gutukku manaku’ was another sketch and line that struck a chord with the people.

That is the kind of work I want to continue to do.” The other work he loves is sketching the ‘young and dynamic’ KTR and Kavitha who represent Telangana in more ways than one. He urges the government to support artists who seem to be able to capture the essence of the problem which even phone and video cameras fail to catch. “You can judge a country by the way it treats its creative artists. Before they turn into manual labourers, the state should identify them and support them to retain art,” says Srinivas.

 -Manju Latha Kalanidhi
kalanidhi @newindianexpress.com  @mkalanidhi