Hyderabad: Idol-making at brisk pace as city braces for Ganesh Chaturthi

Hyderabad: Preparations are in full swing here ahead of the 11-day Ganesh Chaturthi festivities starting from the last week of August. Artisans are busy in making different shapes/types of idols in markets across the City, including Dhoolpet. With less production, the Dhoolpet artisans say there will be a fewer number of idols this year. However, readymade idols will flood the markets.

With the festival, starting from August 31, markets are buzzing with artisans busy in making idols of both PoP (Plaster of Paris) and clay. Dhoolpet is the hub of artisans making idols of PoP for the last several decades. Over 5,000 families in Dhoolpet depend on idol-making. They said with some confusion over the PoP Ganesh idols whether the government will allow PoP idols or not, the artisans in the market have made less idols this year. Although happy with the recent High Court verdict on allowing PoP idols, they breathed easy and got some work.

Telangana Idol Makers' Welfare Association vice-president Kailash Singh Hazari said, with confusion over making of idols of PoP or clay, we 'murty kalakars' were preparing less idols. However, making a PoP idol is cheaper than a clay one. We have already dumped enough PoP at our workshops. "Due to uncertainty over PoP idols, work started only three months back in the city. Earlier it used to be started at least six months before. The Dhoolpet market which earlier used to make between 40,000 and 50,000 idols, this year made hardly 20,000," Hazari stated.

He said, "This year, with fewer idols compared to the last Ganesh festival, for livelihood people are purchasing readymade idols from neighbouring Maharashtra and would be selling them in city market."

Adding to the woes of artisans, prices of raw materials have increased. The prices of idols have steeply gone up. This year a 5 foot idol costs around Rs 10,000, which was earlier Rs 7,000-8,000, while that of a 14-18 ft idol costs Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Ram Murthy, an artist at Dhoolpet (Mangalhat) said, "for the past few years we idol-makers have been facing difficulties in sustaining livelihood. Two years of Covid was very hard-hitting. This year it is PoP issue. We only depend on idol-making. Most of us purchase raw materials by taking a loan or mortgaging jewellery. Each year we are facing huge losses," he added.

Ganesh Chaturthi, a 11-day festival will be celebrated from August 31 and will conclude on September 11. On the first day of the festival, people bring the idol of Lord Ganesh to their houses and offer worship.