Meet Arun Yogiraj, the Kedarnath Shankara sculptor who will be making Netaji statue in Delhi

Mysuru-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj has been selected to carve the statue of Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate under the grand canopy behind the erstwhile Amar Jawan Jyoti.The design of the 30-feet statue has been done by a team from the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) under the Ministry of Culture, headed by its Director-General, Adwaita Gadanayak.Yogiraj will carve out the Netaji statue from a huge black jade granite stone that will be transported to Delhi from Telangana.The Netaji statue isn’t Yogiraj’s first stint in sculpting iconic figures. He is also the man behind the 12-foot statue of Adi Shankaracharya at Kedarnath, which was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.Who is Arun Yogiraj?Arun Yogiraj is the son of renowned sculptor Yogiraj Shilpi. According to a report by The Indian Express, the 37-year-old artiste comes from a family of Mysuru palace artists. An MBA by education, Yogiraj worked with a private firm for a few years before taking up the ancestral work in 2008.Before creating the final stone sculpture of Shankaracharya for Kedarnath, Yogiraj had created a two-feet model for approval by concerned authorities, including the PMO.He presented a similar two-feet model of the Bose statue to PM Modi last month. For the Shankaracharya statue, Yogiraj said that a team of seven sculptors worked continuously for nine months around 14-15 hours a day.“The process started in September 2020 and a team of seven worked continuously for nine months, we purchased 80 tons of raw material for sculpting the statue which weighs 28 tons. It was a continuous process and we worked around 14-15 hours a day to execute this beautiful sculpture," he said, according to an ANI report. According to the report, Yogiraj will work in collaboration with the NGMA team for the Bose sculpture and will work specifically on the facial features of the statue since he specialises in creating portrait sculptures. Starting from 1 June, the work on the Bose statue is expected to be over before the deadline of 15 August.Apart from the Shankaracharya statue, Yogiraj made the 14.5-feet white marble sculpture of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar in Mysuru, and the life-size white marble sculpture of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.Recently, he also worked on a 21-feet monolithic Hanuman statue that has now been installed at Chunchanakatte near Mysuru.With inputs from agenciesRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.