India: Experience Madame Tussaud’s at Kerala museum of wax art

Bengaluru: For a layman, a selfie with a celebrity is a rare opportunity and finding many of them under one roof is rarer still. But, not anymore.

At Sunil’s Wax Museum in Trivandrum, you can find many of your favourite Indian celebrities waiting for a selfie with you.

You might think, ‘but they are not real,’ who cares as long as you have a selfie with your favourite star. Because in picture, they are as good, and nobody would be able to tell the difference between the real and the wax model.

From the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi to freedom fighters Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar to cricketers and film stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohil, Rajnikanth and Salman Khan, you can spend quality time with all of them.

Whether or not you are interested in selfies with the celebrities, this museum boasts of an excellent exhibition of wax art. It’s a place where you can spend hours admiring the fine details of wax sculpture.

If you are passionate about wax sculpture and always wanted to study the art closely, you don’t have to travel all the way to Madame Tussaud’s in London. You can either head to the Kerala capital, Trivandrum, or Lonavala near Mumbai.

We travelled to the Sunil’s Wax Museum in Trivandrum to take you up and close with your favourites stars and celebrities.

Trivandrum is not just the administrative capital of Kerala, it is also the cultural capital of the state.

Trivandrum’s heritage town of East Fort is particularly remarkable for its rich heritage, replete with art, architecture and cultural experiences.

It is natural to find temples, palaces and museums in a heritage locality, but amidst all the historic and cultural experiences one sign constantly stands out as an oddity - Sunil’s Was Museum.

Curious? Let’s walk in and check it out…

As you step inside this unique museum, you will be awestruck as we were. If you always dreamt of meeting all your heroes and idols at one place, this might be your thing.

First up we meet Bapu, as Mahatma Gandhi is still fondly called by many Indians, appreciating his role as the founding father of such a vast and diverse nation like India.

We greet the Mahatma excitedly, but lost in his meditation, Gandhiji doesn’t seem interested in striking up a conversation.

So, we move on and are greeted by the warm smile of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi’s charismatic second in command and independent India’s first prime minister.

He seems pretty chill and chic despite all the bad press he has been receiving off late.

Lounging next to him, Nehru’s lieutenant Sardar Vallabbhai Patel seems to be enjoying the renewed attention, basking in all the glory that is coming his way.

As we walk around, we are overwhelmed by the presence of so many great personalities, crafted so exquisitely by the self-taught artist Sunil Kandalloor.

The museum hosts the who’s who of Indian cinema, sports, royalty and politics.

Kohli with arms akimbo, waiting for the resumption of the game, Tendulkar with a microphone in hand enjoying his retirement,

Baba Ambedkar tightly holding the constitution, as if protecting it from continued attempts of infringement, South Indian mega star Rajnikanth with his trademark flair and the much maligned mother-son duo of the Gandhi family - former Indian prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi - seem a bit perplexed and subdued in their appearance.

India’s most celebrated poet, the Nobel Prize winning genius Rabindranath Tagore appears thoughtful as aware.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reflective and sombre, as if the heavy burdens of governance is wearing him down.

As always, the film stars look as self obsessed as they normally are, conscious of their looks and enjoying all the attention.

What struck us most was the sheer attention to details given by the artist Sunil Kandalloor, not just bringing out the finer features of his subjects but also their peculiarities.

The wax models on display were crafted over a long period of time and not all of them were done with body measurements. But those that were done so with live assessment and real body measurements, look as good as real.

The life size presence of all the stalwarts is both eerie and awe-inspiring, giving visitors an opportunity to admire not just the art work but also their favourite stars.

The self taught artist from Allapuzha runs three museums, including one in Lonavala and another in Devgad. The Trivandram museum is the newest.

If wax art is your thing or if you are in and around the Kerala capital or if you are planning a visit to the city soon, then this wax museum must be part of your itinerary.

— Shafaat Shahbandari, founder-editor of Thousand Shades of India, is a freelance journalist based in Bengaluru.