A tribute museum to the iconic novel and television series Malgudi Days would be incomplete without its primary characters — Swami and Friends. Mysuru-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj’s most recent art work takes care of that. Arun has created life-size models of the popular characters, which will be displayed at the Malgudi Museum at the Arasalu Railway Station in Shivamogga. Arun was contracted by Southern Railways for this work. “It’s a great pleasure to recreate characters that have been an integral part of our childhood. During the lockdown, the series was re-telecast, bringing it to a whole new set of audience, as well as old fans. Watching it again allowed me to study the characteristics and features of each of them carefully and reproduce as statues. Of course, I also used still photographs from the show for reference,” says Arun, who created the statues first in clay and then in fibre with natural colours.
As an artiste, the creation challenged Arun, as he has to represent a set of children in a way that their characteristics and physical features were captured perfectly.
Earlier, Arun had created a life-size model of the popular cartoon character The Common Man, which was initially intended for the Malgudi Museum, but was eventually established at the Railway Museum in Mysuru.
- Sridhar VG