Who is the wide-eyed woman featured in posters across Karnataka's construction sites?

The mystery of the wide-eyed woman on posters across Bengaluru and Karnataka constructions sites, which gained wide spread attention after an X user's post, has finally been solved.

The X user is a woman based from Maharashtra currently living in Bengaluru who encountered the poster multiple times across the state and realized the poster of a wide-eyed woman in a saree hung on buildings is unusual from any other charms used to ward off the 'evil eye'.

Later, she shared her curiosity on X to try to identify the women after her attempt to search using Google went in vain.

She wrote, "I see this woman everywhere in Karnataka outside Bangalore where there’s a construction happening. I tried google lens to check for discussions but can’t find any details. Who is she?"

The user's post on January 5 garnered widespread attention with 3.5 million views. Netizens shared similar curiosity and a few others shared their own explanations.

A user wrote, "This is a nazarbattu (an equivalent to an evil eye to keep negative energies away) for the construction."

A second added that it was hung on construction sites to protect them from negative energies.

A third wrote, "Nazar kavach, but really strange that people are using this. It's mostly a devil-shaped face with a red tongue. Maybe a meme trend."

Following the discussion, an X user took the help of an AI platform to locate the women. He shared the screenshot that stated the woman as one Niharika Rao, a Karnataka-based YouTuber.

It added that the women's surprised reaction from a 2023 viral video clip later evolved as a meme.

As per the bot's analysis, the usage of the woman's poster on construction sites is understood as the tradition practised by locals to use humorous " Drishti Gombe (Mascarons)" to ward off the evil eye.