The portrait of an elderly man working on wood pleases artist B Shrikanth. The painting is on a pillar on a Hyderabad street, and its creator likes it in particular because of the concentration with which the man is shown working. “The man is around 70 years of age. He is not very muscular but is healthy, and is focused on his work. I feel that it has a sense of beauty,” he says.
Shrikanth is among 15 artists painting Hyderabad red — and green, blue and a host of other colours. For exactly a year now, artists have been painting the walls of the city, but the project of beautifying the city took a new turn when Metro Rail invited city-based artists, through a tender, to work on the pillars that support the rail tracks. Both sides of 315 pillars have been painted so far, taking the number of paintings to 630.
The painting by Shrikanth, who has 13 years of professional experience, can be seen near the Rasoolpura Metro Station. “A lot of my work reflects life in a village. Because of my upbringing, that is what I am most drawn to,” he says. His other works on the pillar underline rural activities: A woman drawing water from a pump and a shepherd with his flock.
Another artist, Shakeeb Khaza, wants his paintings to celebrate Telangana. He has drawn portraits of well-known people from the state. “Not many people know about Telangana’s leaders. Because of these portraits, the new generation will know about them,” he says. Along the stretch from Begumpet to the Prakash Nagar station, one can see his portraits of Komaram Bheem, a tribal leader, Chakali Ailamma, who was a part of the Telangana armed struggle, and Telangana Talli, a goddess. “I used to start work at 5am to avoid the traffic,” says Khaza, a commercial artist. He started out by painting film posters 40 years ago and now specialises in portraits, apart from painting images of gods in temples and cartoons in schools.
Chiranjeevi Malli, whose works adorn 20 pillars in the Srinagar Colony-Jubilee Hills stretch, chose to create an eclectic set of pictures based on the location of the pillar. “Street art needs to connect with the people. Every pillar has a meaning attached to it,” he says. For instance, he painted a chimpanzee overlooking a liquor store. “My thought was that I should entertain the people going there to unwind. The chimpanzee has the cheeky look that says: ‘I know what you are doing’,” he laughs. He has also painted a portrait of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, whose work has inspired him. “I want people to stop for a bit and look at my work,” he says.
The paintings seem to be catching eyes. Sandhya Madduri, a graphic designer who lives in Hyderabad, says, “Some of the artwork is stunning. It gives a sense of the culture of the region. Earlier, we had only advertisements with bad typography... This is another avenue for the artists.”
NVS Reddy, managing director, Hyderabad Metro Limited, says, “We consistently work on quality public spaces, smart parking, appropriate sidewalks, and a more accessible city for women, children and the disabled. So, I thought of what we could do with the pillars. That is when the idea of inviting local artists struck me. An art exhibition has limited audience, but thousands see the pillars every day.”
For Shrikanth, street art is a means to another end. While it offers him a public canvas and an income, he hopes that his works also make a statement. He is passionate about sculpting, and shows a photograph of one of his sculptures that seeks to address the issue of female foeticide. “I represent incidents that move me strongly or represent something from the village where I am from. When I talk about my village, I want to show the kind of life that is slowly fading away.” He refers to one of his works which he calls ‘My village Krishna’. It shows a boy playing a flute while sitting on a buffalo. “In my village, there was young man who used to sit on a buffalo and play the flute,” he recalls. While he has held two solo shows, one of his scrap metal sculptures has been placed in the city’s Indira Park.
Shrikanth lauds the Metro Rail’s beautification project, but thinks it could have had a unifying theme. “To a certain extent it beautifies the city. However, it may make more sense to have a common theme across the town.”
Khaza laments the lack of support given to artists. It wasn’t always like this, he says. “My father was also an artist. Back in his time, artists were valued more by society,” he says.
The government does give out contracts, but the money doesn’t always reach the artists concerned, adds Shrikanth. In big government projects, a contract is often given to someone who then hires the artist, he claims. “A very small percentage of the government money comes to the artists,” he says.
But he is looking forward to his next assignment — painting another set of 10 pillars. He has zeroed in on 10 more ideas that reflect rural Telangana. His classmates from fine arts may have moved to the IT sector, but Shrikanth is happy painting idyllic scenes from villages. “I am interested in this and I will keep at it,” he says.”
Malli, too, is convinced that art is his true calling. Humans are not permanent, but art is, he says. “I live as an artist and I will die as one.”
Swetha Dandapani is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad